


Animated Horrors

by Esperosis



Series: Shadowfear-art AUs [1]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Good Dad Jack, Good Parent Handsome Jack (Borderlands), Gun Violence, Hauntings, Hyperion is a animation studio, I'mma add more character tags as the characters apear, Jealous Jack, Karma is a bitch!, M/M, Magic, Minor Violence, Supernatural - Freeform, Vasquez is a dick, mobster Rhys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-09-28 00:51:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10060046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esperosis/pseuds/Esperosis
Summary: Aka where Tim finds a magic ink pen and the entire animation studio feels the wrath of his poor life choices.Tim just wanted to make a name for himself at the Hyperion animation studio, sadly his more experienced co-worker Vasquez is determined to not have that happen, so it's not really a surprise that when Tim gets his first big break, things go south.However, what Tim didn't expect was to get help from a rather unlikely source...





	1. Chapter 1: And so, it begins

**Author's Note:**

> HI, this is my first ever fanfiction, so I'm starting off with a multi-chapter fic cause go big or go home right? ;-;  
> Comments are much appreciated, also this fanfiction is based off of The Animated for Terror au:  
> http://shadowfear-art.tumblr.com/post/157640937459/i-was-inspired-by-the-game-demo-bendy-and-the-ink  
> by Shadowfear.

Tim sat at his desk with his head resting in his hands. He stared at the blank sheet of paper in front of him. He’d been working at Hyperion for a year now, but still, he hadn’t ever got recognition for any his work. He frowned as he thought about his boss, Vazquez, who has had it out for him since day one. But Vasquez didn’t matter, he was finally had his a chance. He was going to make a name for himself, prove his worth to the higher ups. Vasquez couldn't take this away from him.

 

He and a few other coworkers were pulled into a meeting with the higher ups earlier and given an assignment. The main cartoon of the studio “The Vault Hunters of Pandora” needed a new villain. The previous one, Commandant Steele, had been defeated in the last season. He and nine other animators had been given this assignment. Tim was determined that his character would be the one chosen to be the villain of the show.

 

There was only one small issue, he didn’t know some of the details of the character, namely all of them. He groaned and let his head thump onto his desk as he ran his hands through his hair, this was the most important character he was going to make in his career. Why couldn’t he think of anything? He lifted his head off his desk and settled his chin on his fist. He glanced to the side to look at the three drawings he had already drawn. None of them really seemed like main antagonist potential to him, he sighed. His warm orange desk lamp, that usually gave his office a cozy atmosphere, wasn’t helping his nerves like it usually did. If he didn’t come up with something he’d be stuck under Vasquez forever. Worse than that, he’d never pay off his student loans.

 

His workshop door was flung open before smacking against the opposite wall loudly, breaking Tim out of his train of thought. 

_ “Only one person has to make an entrance that big to overcompensate for his lack of everything,” _ Tim sighed as he slowly turned around.Vasquez, smirking at him at him from the doorway.

 

“Hey there Tims, heard you got and assignment to make the antagonist for the Vault Hunters cartoon? That true? Cause I personally thought when I heard about that, ‘What? Tim? No way!’ so just wanna make sure that's, not in fact what happened.” He smirked superiorly at Tim. Tim frowned at Vasquez. 

“No, it’s true I was picked. Because, unlike you, I have actual talent, and don’t just get the interns to do my work for me,” Tim grinned back at him, fully aware that Vasquez was not given the assignment.

 

Vasquez scowled, before glancing at the three drawing next to Tim,

“Hope none of those are what you’re going with. My three-year-old niece can draw better than that,” Vasquez said resuming his superior smirk. 

“God, I hope they don’t let you near them,” Tim mumbled just loud enough for Vasquez to hear. Vasquez glared then walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Tim turned back to his paper, grumbling a bit. As he looked at it and idea that he didn’t hate struck him.

 

_ “This villain would need to be a character that the audience could root against. So who do people root against more than an asshole?” _ Tim thought to himself as he began to sketch.

_ “What makes people an asshole? Well, a superiority complex is one, overly vain is another, also cruelty, people hate that. But, everyone is going to be making a character like that, how am I going to make mine better than the rest?”  _ Tim tapped the base of his ink pen against his lips as he contemplated this,

_ ”People, like likable villains…” _ and as that thought enter his head a surge of inspiration struck him Tim’s, his head he knew exactly what he was going to make this character the best.

 

He finished up his sketch as he folded it up neatly and stuffed it in his pocket. Gathering his things, he turned his lights off leaving his workshop. It was rather late and he wanted to sleep on his idea, and really think it over before picking the best design. 

 

There was a skip in his step as he said goodbye to the nice building secretary, Meg, he thinks her name is. He made it to his car in the back of the parking lot still on cloud nine as he begun to think more about this character. 

_ “How do I make a character that’s an asshole likable? People like it when others can make them laugh. So maybe I can make him funny, while still making him an asshole...” _ he thought as he hummed along to the song he like on the radio, it was an upbeat tune about best friends or something.

 

He finally pulled up to his apartment building, parking his car he made his way back to his apartment. Opening his door he laid down his couch after kicking his shoes off. His mind running at a million miles an hour, he quickly found himself falling asleep. The last thing he could remember before falling into a dreamless sleep was a name.

 

_ Handsome Jack _

 

His mind slowly returned to consciousness due to an incessant beeping could be heard from somewhere in his apartment. He numbly groaned and started swatting his arm, trying to stop his alarm clock, only succeeding in rather harshly slamming his hand against his coffee table. He yelped in pain as he sat upright, slowly looking around his apartment he realized he must have fallen asleep on the couch. He then slowly got up and bleary eyed shuffled to his room, opening the door knob, wincing at the increase of noise. He the then numbly walked over to his alarm clock shutting off the alarm by karate chopping the blasted thing. He picked up the alarm clock to get a better look at the glowing red numbers. He still couldn’t really make out the numbers, so he yawned and whipped his eye with the heel of his hand. He stopped mid-yawn as he finally saw the time, it was 8:39 am, ten minutes after he should be leaving for work.

 

“OH GOSH DANG IT I OVERSLEPT, HOLY SMOKES!’ Tim screamed as he immediately started to strip from last night's clothes while moving over to the closet. This only resulted in him letting out a panicked squawk as he tumbled to the floor in an uncoordinated heap of limbs and clothing. 

 

It took a few minutes to figure out how to get out of his limb and clothes heap. Fifteen more to get changed, brush his hair, and grab a leftover sandwich from the refrigerator that he forgot to eat for dinner last night. Even then he had to run back into the apartment because he forgot his wallet and the sketch in the pants he wore last night. He finally arrived running through the door at around 9:03 am, gulping in lungfuls of air after sprinting across the parking lot. He stumbled over to Meg’s desk and leaning on it, as Meg patiently waited for him to catch his breath.

“I’m… sorry… I’m late… Meg…” Tim said still gasping. 

“No you’re no,” Meg smiled at him, 

“Wai…” Tim huffed confused. 

“From what I see on this paper here you arrive promptly at 8:55 am,” Meg smiled at him, Tim just looked at her dumbfounded for a minute before smiling broadly back at her. 

“Thank you, that's really nice of you to do,” He said

“It’s no problem,” She responded happily. Tim was still smiling as he waved goodbye to her, making his way back to his workshop. Only for his smile to be wiped right off his face when he sees the state of his workshop.

 

It was completely trashed, Tim just stood there in shock as he surveyed the scene, all of his fountain pens had been broken or smashed. His inkwells had been thrown at his drawing on the walls ruining them. All of his work had been either ruined or taken, and to add insult to injury his adorable motivational cat poster had been ripped to pieces and thrown in the piles of ink staining the ground.

 

Tim must have been standing in his doorway with his jaw hanging open for a good five minutes surveying the scene. Anger started pooling in his gut, he knew exactly who did this, but he needed to prove it. He eyed the hall security camera and knew that there would be a video of the culprit. Fuming, he marched his way back to Meg’s desk.

 

“Oh, Tim, what's wrong you seem a lot angrier than you were when you can in. Did something happen?” Meg concernedly asked Tim, noticing his agitation. 

“Someone’s trashed my workshop, and stolen or ruined all of my work,” Tim stated, Meg ‘s eyes widened shocked. 

“That’s horrible! Do you want me to see if I can tell who did it by looking at the hall security camera recordings?” She asked, seemly on the same thought process as Tim, 

“If you could that would be really nice,” Tim sighed. 

“Alright, what is your room number?” Meg inquired, reaching for a notepad and pen on her desk. “Its A134, and thank you for helping me,” Tim said, genuinely happy with Meg’s kindness. Most people working at Hyperion were like Vasquez, looking to screw anyone over for a promotion, it was rare to find someone genuinely nice like Meg. 

“It’s no problem at all, I just have to get this report filled out, and then I’ll look at the security tapes. In the meantime, There's an old storage room over that way,” she said pointing to her right, “Maybe, you’ll be able to get some temporary supplies just for now until you can get some new ones to replace the broken ones,” Meg explained after writing down the room number and a quick note to check the security camera recordings. 

“Thanks, I’ll check it out, and really thanks for everything you’re really nice,” Tim smiled at her glancing down the hallway she pointed at. 

“It’s no problem at all,” Meg smiled back.

 

Tim then started to make his way down the hallway, his workshop got ransacked, and he has to get supplies from a dusty old supply closet. Could today get any worse?

  
  



	2. Chapter 2: An unlikely ally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim finds some supplies, then something interesting happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fanfiction is based off of The Animated for Terror au:  
> http://shadowfear-art.tumblr.com/post/157640937459/i-was-inspired-by-the-game-demo-bendy-and-the-ink  
> by Shadowfear.

Tim coughed as he groped the wall for a light switch. It had taken him ten minutes to actually find the supplies room. It was tucked away in a corner at the end of an out of the way hallway. Tim guessed that the effort the room took to find was a contributing factor as to why it wasn't used. He finally found the light switch and flicked it on. The light flickered on, revealing a small room filled with cardboard boxes, all covered in a thick layer of dust. 

“Guess I better start looking,” Tim sighed as he opened the closest box to him.

 

The first few boxes weren’t filled with anything helpful. Around the fourth box, he finally found a stack of drawing paper, jackpot. Tim smiled as he took out the stack of paper, and set it outside the small room. However, for the second time that day, his smile was wiped right off his face, as he bumped into a large stack of boxes while walking back into the room. He let out a yelp as the boxes fell on him.

 

Tim sat up after pushing some of the boxes, and loose paper clips, off him. He rubbed his head as he looking at the boxes that fell on him, thinking about how he was going to pick up the mess. As he began putting all the things back in their boxes, he noticed one of the boxes had a few inkwells in them. He promptly put the ink wells on top of the stack of papers outside the door. He then carefully made his way back in as not to make an even bigger mess than he had already made.

 

He was just getting done putting the boxes back when he noticed that an item had rolled across the floor and was resting against the opposite wall. He walked over to it and found it to be a fountain pen. He bent down picked it up and wiped the dust off. Upon further inspection the pen seemed to be in great condition.The Pen also seemed to be an antique, with a rather elegant design. He pocketed the pen, and carefully picked up the inkwells and the stack of paper and began making his way back to his workshop.

 

As he walked past Meg’s desk he smiled at her. She looked up from her work, glancing at him, she smiled back noticing he had in fact gotten supplies. He continued past her desk to his own workshop. He groaned as he turned down the hall already spotting Vasquez walking toward him.

“Hey! Would ya look at that, it's the Tim-ster! Just who I was looking for!” Vasquez said in a falsely friendly tone. Tim cringed slightly at the use of the nickname ‘Tim-ster’, seriously what was wrong with this guy?

“What do you want Vasquez,” Tim stated rather bitterly as he tried to walk past him but was blocked.

“Hey, so I heard someone kinda trashed your workshop, shame really, what a shame. Just wanted to, ya know to send you my condolences about your cat poster.” Vasquez sneered.

“Thanks, can you move now?” Tim stated dully while trying to sidestep him again and getting blocked again.

“Oh come on Tims, we’re all friends here! And I am just a trying to be a good friend, and tell you I feel sorry your office was trashed. At least you weren't doing anything important, would have been a shame for something actually good to have gotten ruined.” Vasquez mocked him, feigning hurt. Tim let out an annoyed sigh.

“Look, I know you’re the one that trashed my workshop I just have to prove it,” Tim said, starting to get agitated. 

“I did nothing of the sort, see I’m just trying to be nice to you and you’re accusing me of stuff! Come on Tim-ster, that's not how friends treat each other!” Vasquez said exasperatedly.

“We. Are. Not. Friends. Now move, I just want to get back to my workshop and work on my character.” Tim fumed, as he finally was able to sidestep past Vasquez, continuing down the hall.

“Nice sweater!” Vasquez yelled after Tim. Tim finally got back to his office putting his papers and inkwells back on his desk. He finally looked down at the sweater he was wearing and realized which one it was. It was the peach one with a little black cat on the front. Nisha had got it for him for his birthday, saying she thought it would look cute on him. It did, thank you very much, Vasquez. Tim really liked the sweater and wasn’t about to let Vasquez make him feel bad about wearing it.

 

He took his sketch out of his pocket grumbling about how it was a nice sweater he set up his desk. He put his stack of paper in his desk drawer, along with two of the ink wells. He took out a piece of paper placing it in front of him. He also put the last inkwell on the right top corner of his desk and fished the fountain pen from his pocket. He began drawing the Jack character on the new sheet of paper using the ink while continuing to grumble about Vasquez. Half way through the drawing he became too concentrated on what he was doing to continue ranting about Vasquez. This was the character he was going to turn into the higher ups, so it had to be good, which meant he had to concentrate. And he’d rather get it done on the first try so he had more time to clean up his workshop. Right as he was almost done with the drawing of Jack he heard a soft knocking at his door.

“Come in!” Tim called over his shoulder, and a shorter man opened the door.

“Oh hey, I was just getting in and past Meg’s desk, she asked if I could tell you to come over?” The man said.

“Ah, thanks for letting me know.” Tim smiled at the man. The man nodded and shut the door. Tim put the last touches on his piece before he got up and left his workshop. He made sure to lock the door behind him to avoid unwanted visitors. He began briskly walking over to Meg’s desk.

 

His heart sank a bit when he saw Meg looking worriedly at the screen.

“Oh, hey, everything alright?” Tim asked, already dreading the answer he was going to get. Meg sadly shook her head.

“I’m really sorry Tim, I was looking through the footage from the camera that was surveying the hallway your room is in. I found that the camera turned off for a good thirty minutes before finally turning back on,” she responded sadly. Tim’s heart sank,

“Dang, who could have done that?” Tim dejectedly stated. Meg shook her head, “I don’t know.” Tim let out a long sigh, but then an idea hit him.

“What about the other cameras?” Tim said. Meg gave him a  confused look, not getting it,

“What about them?” she asked.

“Did the other camera’s next to that one go off?” Tim elaborated. Meg started looking through the other video feeds from the cameras,

“No. Why?” Meg asked curiously.

“If we look at the other cameras we can pay attention to who was passing that area during the time the camera went down. Then all we have to do is pay attention to who walked past the dead camera, and didn’t leave that area for a while,” Tim smirked. Meg’s jaw dropped at the realization,

“I didn’t think of that! I’ll look through the cameras again and make a list, then I’ll figure out whose offices are in that stretch of the hallway and take anyone on that list off the list of people who didn’t leave for a while. Then we have a list of suspects!” Meg cheered. Tim beamed, glad he had thought of that. Vasquez might have thought he was smart with that move, but he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. Tim was about to prove that.

“You don’t have to do this right away, I don’t want to add any more to your workload,” Tim said to Meg, realizing that this would take some time and energy.

“It’s alright, I usually don’t have too much work. I’ll just do it off and on throughout the day, our list of suspects should be ready by the end of the day,” She smiled at Tim. Tim smiled back,

“Seriously, thank you for all your help, this is really nice of you.”

“It’s alright, but as payment, how about you get me coffee when you come into work every once in awhile?” Meg winked at him. Tim smiled,

“It’s a deal.” They shook hands and laughed. Tim then started making his way back to his office. 

 

He finally got back to his office, unlocking the door. He opened his door and stepped inside turning around to shut the door. When he turned around he realized he wasn’t alone. Tim froze at the sight in front of him. Sitting on his desk, with his legs below the knee inside the drawing he left on his desk, was Jack.

“What the fuck is this shit?” Jack muttered at the ink-stained, but still visible, other character designs he had drawn. It seemed Jack still hadn’t realized Tim had entered the room. Tim took a moment to regard the new person sitting on his desk.

 

The man was in black and white, his skin completely white, and his hair completely black. He was wearing a dark gray short sleeved shirt over a light gray dress shirt rolled up to his elbows. The top two button of his shirt were undone, showing off some of his chest. His face, however, was the weirdest part. Instead of regular eyes he just had a rounded line connected to his eyebrows, and pure black iris, and pupils, with a line taken out for shading. Another thing was his mouth, instead of a regular mouth, his mouth was more like a warped oval with lines running up and down it. In general, he looked like he climbed out of a cartoon.

 

“Um… What?!?!?!” Tim gasped, after studying the cartoon man on his desk. Jack’s head snapped up to look at the man while pulling a pistol out of his jacket and aiming it at Tim’s head. Tim let out a scared yelp, putting both his hands in the air starting to shake. After realizing who it was Jack just started laughing and put his pistol away.

“Shit kiddo! You surprised me!” Jack chuckled, hoping off the desk approaching the now terrified Tim. 

“Aww, come on pumpkin, no need to be so sacred! I’m not going to hurt ya!” Jack laughed pulling Tim away from the door, and wrapping his hands around Tim’s shoulders he began to lead him further into the workshop.

“You and I got to have a talk about some shit kay cupcake?” Jack said pushing Tim into his seat at his desk.

“I-” Tim started

“Great! Now listen here, cause this is very important.” Jack interrupted him

“I think we both know that you are kinda a useless toadie right now right? Right. Now! We’ve got to change that because if you get to the top, I do too! So, I am going to help you help me, kay? Kay. Great! We are going to work so well together.” Jack smirked at him.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are much appreciated


	3. Chapter 3: Handsome Goddamn Jack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Handsome Jack is the toon with the explain, and Tim is just going to have to hang in there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a little bit longer than the others, hope you enjoy. Also sorry if I suck at writing Jack ;-;
> 
> this fanfiction is based off of The Animated for Terror au:  
> http://shadowfear-art.tumblr.com/post/157640937459/i-was-inspired-by-the-game-demo-bendy-and-the-ink  
> by Shadowfear.

“Now I get it, I really do, you just can’t find the words to say cause you’re just so goddamn nervous! But really, I know I’m Handsome Jack but, this partnership isn’t going to go very far if you don’t start contributing, alright cupcake?” Jack eyed him.

“I-I-I, am just…” Tim stuttered and trailed off.

“I-I-I, come on dum dum spit it out.” Jack frowned. Tim could tell he was starting to get annoyed, so he needed to say something fast.

“How the heck are you real? I mean, I drew you on a piece of paper and now you’re…” Tim trailed off, looking Jack up and down as if to make his point.

 

“Ah, you see that was a not completely stupid response! I knew you had a brain in there somewhere, just needed to look to find it,” Jack smiled knocking on Tim’s head a few times.

“Now about how I’m real,” Jack stated while reaching over to Tim’s desk, plucking the pen from it.

“You see this here,” Jack gestured to the pen in his hand, Tim nodded.

“Well you see, and don’t ask me how I know this I just do, this is called “the Life Giver” Tim Tams. This little thing right here is why you’re looking at my beautifully handsome face in 3D. Now, it’s called “the Life Giver”, you draw something it comes to life, pretty straight forward. Except, my dear sweet Timmy, it has a partner that's never too far behind it. Bet if you looked for it hard enough you could find it the same place you found this. Now, the other item is not as friendly as our pen here. It’s called “the Imprisoner” and as its name would suggest it's a bummer. If you find it, you need to remember something very important Tim tams, and I trust that you’re smart enough to follow my advice. Never, under any circumstances drink the ink from “the Imprisoner”. I don’t know why you would be drinking ink in the first place, but if you, for some strange reason, get the urge to do something really fucking dumb as to drink ink, don’t do it from “the imprisoner”. Does that answer your question pumpkin?” Jack explained.

 

Tim took a minute to process all of the information Jack had just given him.

“What happens if I do drink the ink? Hypothetically.” Tim asked. Jack let out a long drawn out, slightly irritated sigh.

“If, hypothetically, you were to drink the ink from “the imprisoner” one of two things would happen. One, you would turn to ink and die. Two, depending on how determined and foolish you are, your soul would be absorbed into the ink along with many other who have met the same fate. It was made to punish filthy bandits and criminals, takes their souls and purifies them, by erasing everything about them except for their knowledge. Any more questions, and please have them not be dumb this time.” Jack explained a bit more annoyed than before.

“Just one more…” Tim said hesitantly. Jack let out a loud groan.

“What is it pumpkin, spit it out,” Jack insisted when Tim hesitated to ask.

“What, exactly are you planning to do to help me? Like are we going to be doing anything illegal? Because I have a perfect record and I-” Tim rambled when Jack cut him off

“No, also a perfect record? Like not even a ticket?” Tim shook his head “Wow! You are boring as hell, really need to get out more cupcake.I can tell you I’m not exactly impressed,” Jack shook his head sadly “But, first off before I make a real plan to help you, I’m going to scope out the area, get a feel for what's going on. I’ll be back,” Jack said over his shoulder as he started heading toward the air vent. It was in the top right corner of his workshop. The vent was a decent size but Jack definitely couldn’t fit.

 

“Jack, you can’t fit through there,” Tim questioned, legitimately confused. Jack just threw him a wink over his shoulder. Suddenly Jack started melting in a puddle of black ink.Tim just watched, open-mouthed, as the ink climbed up the wall and slipped in between the bars of the vent disappearing from view.

 

“Wait no,” Tim said after a minute, realizing it was a horrible Idea to leave Jack to his own devices. Tim debated whisper yelling for Jack to come back, but everyone near a vent would be able to hear him. He eventually realized there was nothing he could do, and sat down numbly at his workshop desk. He turned his head to blankly stare at the magical pen, Jack had placed back on his desk during his long speech. Tim decided that maybe, he should hide it, seemed like a magic pen that could bring drawings to life, wasn’t exactly something you would want to leave lying around. Tim looked around a bit before just putting it in his pocket, deciding to find somewhere better to put it later.

 

Tim then stood up, deciding after what just happened, he needed a break. He was just going to walk home and pick up some art supplies, and when he got back none of this magic stuff was going to have ever happened. Yeah. Just ignore your problems until they go away. Tim walked out of his office, locking the door behind him. He started walking back down the hallway and past Meg’s desk. He almost forgot to wave to her, but remembered at the last moment, as he saw her wave to him out of the corner of his eye. He waved to her and gave her his best fake smile, which admittedly wasn’t that great.

“Everything ok? You seem anxious about something?” Meg concernedly questioned him.

“Yeah, everything's fine just stressing out about the whole character thing!” Tim replied nervously. He didn’t want to lie to Meg, she was so nice. What was he supposed to say, though?

 _“Oh hey Meg, just wanted to let you know I found a magic pen that brought a cartoon psychopath to life! Also, he’s currently moving around the vents as a moving splatter of ink, doing god knows what to gods knows who! But anyway hows your day?”_ all things considered, that didn’t seem like the best conversation starter. Technically he wasn’t lying, he was nervous about the character thing. Only he was nervous he was going to strangle someone, not if he would get in the cartoon or not.

 

Meg nodded and made a sound of agreement in the back of her throat.

“I know what you mean, sometimes work projects can just get to you! But I know you’ll do great.” Meg smiled at him. Tim smiled back genuinely touched again at the reminder of how kind Meg could be. Meg then asked another question,

“Where are you going by the way? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh just home to grab some lunch and more drawing supplies I keep at my apartment,” Tim replied.

“Ah, well see you in a bit then!” Meg called after him as he began to leave.

“See you in a bit Meg,” Tim called cheerfully over his shoulder.

 

He headed out to his car and started it up. He temporarily forgot about the whole mess with Jack for the moment. He put on his favorite radio station as he drove to his apartment building. Pulling in he switched off his car and got out. He headed up to his apartment climbing up the flights of stairs to get to his door and slipping inside. He got started on popping some microwavable T.V. dinner into his microwave, as he took the pen out of his pocket. He stared at it for a long minute, trying to decide the safest place to put it. He decided to keep it on him, so he grabbed his company branded brown jacket, and stuck the pen in the inside pocket near his heart.

 

He then quickly ate the warmed up macaroni and gathered some art supplies as well as some cleaning supplies. He didn’t really feel like diving through more old closets and he really didn’t want to deal with a bottle of cursed dish washing soap. He stuck all of this in a black backpack and threw it over his shoulders. He caught himself in a mirror. He looked rather cool in the brown jacket and the black backpack, with his faded blue jeans and white sneakers. The only thing that ruined it all was the kitten sweater, he shortly debated taking it off, deciding not to. It was a nice sweater dang it, and he was gonna wear it!

 

He then headed out of his apartment locking the door and jumping into his car. He hurried back into the building as his hour lunch break was only a few minutes from being over. He greeted Meg again, who greeted him back and he headed to his workshop.

 

Jack wasn’t done with, whatever he was doing yet or he was but he wasn’t here, either way, he was out of Tim’s hair for the moment. Tim started cleaning his workshop, first carefully placing the cleaning supplies on the floor, then placing the old supplies from earlier in the bag. He then got started mixing water with baking soda, until it formed a paste. He then started the task of gently scrubbing the paste onto the ink stains on his furniture. Then he applied some water to a cloth and gently scrubbed the paste off until all the ink was off the furniture. He then dried all the wet areas off before starting to make more paste to start on the floors.

 

When he was drying off the floors, Jack finally returned.

“Oh wow, this place doesn’t look as shitty as when I left! Also nice jacket cupcake! Almost makes up the man points your sweater takes away.” Jack laughed at him. Tim scowled and before he could think about what he was saying, and who to he snapped,

“It is a nice sweater, Jack!” Jack raised his eyebrows, as Tim felt himself go cold. He was about to start apologizing for snapping when Jack started laughing.

“Much better Tim tams, man just watching you stutter like an idiot was getting boring, but hey! Now you’ve grown some balls kiddo!” Jack replied sitting on Tim’s chair kicking his feet up and placing his hands behind his head. It was just then Tim realized Jack was holding something.

“Um, what's that?” Tim questions referencing the piece of paper in Jack’s hand. Jack raised an eyebrow at him, before looking at the paper and laughing again.

“Right almost forgot Tim Tams, I found this little guy just hanging around in an old corner of some forgotten shit-hole. When I saw him, I thought to myself, who needs help? Tim tams that's who! So, I want you to draw this little cutie right here, and he’s going to help us.” Jack responded handing Tim the old drawing.

 

Tim studied the drawing for a moment. It was of a man, in his late twenties, with a missing right arm, and a scar over his left. He was dressed like a 90’s mobster, in a dark gray pinstripe suit, a black undershirt, and a white tie.

“Um, Jack? Are you sure about this? He looks like a mobster. What if he’s dangerous? Or doesn’t want to help us?” Tim questioned as he placed the drawing on his desk, and wiped his hands off.

“Ehh, If he’s trouble I’ll shoot him in the head, and you can clean up all the ink.” Jack brushed him off sitting on the table next to the desk his back against the ink-stained wall. Tim frowned, but did as he was told, grabbing a piece of paper and beginning to draw the mobster on it with the pen.

“Hey, Tim.” Jack caught his attention as he was halfway through.

“Yes, Jack?” Tim responded

“Don’t clean this ink spot off the wall.”

“Why?”

“Magic, stuff I don’t want to take the time to explain to you right now because you’re just going to ask a bunch of dumbass questions.”

“Okay…” Tim frowned and continued working. He really wasn’t sure about this mobster. But if Jack wanted him to draw the guy, he thought while finishing the last few lines, what choice did he have?

 

As he finally finished, Jack pushed him out of the way and nearly out of his chair.

“H-Hey!” Tim squawked but was ignored as Jack paid all of his attention on the drawing. Suddenly the ink started glowing black, but only for a second, and for a moment Tim thought he had imagined it.

“Come on out cupcake.” Jack called to the paper. Suddenly the person in the drawing began to move. They looked down at their hand, then around the paper, then outwards toward Jack.

“That’s it cupcake come on out,” Jack called at the mobster. The Mobster finally reached outward and a hand appeared from the paper. Tim gasped as the hand tried to pull itself out a few times before Jack sighed, and grabbed the hand and began to pull. Eventually via pulling Jack was able to get the mobster out of the paper, and they collapsed in a heap on the floor, due to Jack’s harsh tugging.

 

The Mobster immediately scrambled off of Jack, standing up and looking around wildly.

“Where are we? Who are you? Where’s Fiona?” The man started questioning wildly at Jack, obviously disoriented.

“We are currently in Timmy here's workshop,” He gestured at Tim, “My name’s Jack, and I don’t know who Fiona is or where she would be. Now, I realize you probably have a bunch of questions about what’s happening. I did too, just wait a few minutes and you’ll start to know a bunch of shit. Now, I’ve told you my name what's yours?” Jack explained to the spooked mobster.

“Rhys” Rhys responded shortly while beginning to relax.

“That’s great Rhys, now Tim and I need your help. We are going to get Tim to the top of his little animation studio here, and you are going to help us. Sound good cupcake?” Jack told Rhys. Tim looked quickly in between the two magical toons. They both seemed pretty headstrong, how were they going to get along? Rhys regarded Tim, and then his workshop before nodding.

“Alright, I’ll help you.”

  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha ha, Rhys is finally here!
> 
> Also, I feel the need to warn you guys that this is going to slowly get more angsty as it goes on, so please be prepared...


	4. Chapter 4: And then there were three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys and Jack get to know each other, and Jack finally explains his plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fanfiction is based off of The Animated for Terror au:  
> http://shadowfear-art.tumblr.com/post/157640937459/i-was-inspired-by-the-game-demo-bendy-and-the-ink  
> by Shadowfear.

Rhys regarded the two men in front of him. They wanted his help to rise to the top. Seemed simple enough.

“Alright, I’ll help you,” Rhys replied to Jack’s request.

_“Not like I have much of a choice,”_ Rhys thought to himself while Jack smiled and clapped his hands together.

“That's what I wanted to hear pumpkin!” Jack laughed, suddenly his voice was a lot more grating than it was a few minutes ago. Rhys pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Doing ok Rhysie? Ah, you probably have a headache! It’s alright,” Jack smiled while leading Rhys over to Tim’s desk and sitting him down, “Just sit down for a couple of minutes.” Jack said patting him on the shoulder and moving to lean against the wall.

 

“Um, Jack?” Tim whispered to him. Jack simply raised an eyebrow at him in response.

“I was just wondering, what exactly is our plan? You didn’t say anything before, just that you wanted to get an idea of the situation and then come up with something.” Tim continued nervously looking at Jack.

“Ah yes! I was just getting to that Tim Tams!” Jack said to Tim. Rhys frowned his headache was starting to ebb away. Like Jack had said he started to just know things about the pen and the ink. What had Rhys concerned though was that he didn’t remember much about before he got here. He remembered his friends: Vaughn, Sasha, and Fiona. He remembered they were on the run, and he also remembered that they were all part of the Atlas mafia. But that was about it, his lack of knowledge was concerning him. He felt remembering this stuff was very important, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember. 

_“Maybe, it’ll all come back to me later?”_ Rhys thought hopefully as he heard Jack’s chatter in the background. He sighed, He supposed he’d just have to wait to remember, nothing he could really do about it.

 

“Got all that cupcake?” Jack said, suddenly at his side with his, rather large wow, hands on his shoulders. Rhys swallowed looking up at Jack’s expectant eyes. He hadn’t heard a word.

“Um, yes?” Rhys replied

“That’s not really a question you should be answering with another question.” Jack frowned at him. “But I suppose because of that awful headache. I’ll cut you some slack and repeat myself, but I won’t be doing it again, got it Rhysie?” Jack sighed. Rhys nodded.

“Alright! So the plan is this! Tim tams here,” he jabbed a thumb at Tim,”Made me because he needed a hero for his Bandits of Pandora show.” Jack began to explain.

“Again it's an antagonist, and the show is called Vault Hunters of Pandora” Tim sighed.

“Alright one, that's what I said. Two, you did a shit job finding an antagonist, because I am the goddamn hero.” Jack corrected Tim.

 

“Where was I? Oh, yeah, Bandits. Ok, so Tim made me to be a character for his little show. Now I need to get into that show to save Pandora from the bandit scum and etc. Tim needs me to be in the show to elevate his position in this little animation studio thing. Basically! Getting me to be in that show is a win-win situation! So the first order of business is to get me in that show. Now we could do that by being better than the competition, which we already are, but that doesn't guarantee us a spot. What we need to do is sabotage most of the competition, but not, I repeat not, all of them. That's too suspicious. We just need to sabotage everyone except the three worst ideas, then we are all good. After that, we just keep sabotaging people and stabbing people in the back till we’re at the top! Sound good to everyone?” Jack explained.

“I still don’t like it, it seems mean to ruin everyone’s chances,” Tim mumbled while Rhys nodded.

“Hey it’s this or you stay a useless toadie nobody gives a shit about for the rest of your pathetic life.” Jack sighed as if they had already had this conversation.

_“It’s possible they did, Jack was here for a period of time before I arrived.”_ Rhys thought.

 

“Rhys is onboard! That means it must be a good idea!” Jack said putting an arm around Rhys’s shoulder and dragging him closer.

“He’s a mobster!” Tim exclaimed exasperated, “No offense Rhys,” Tim added quietly.

“It’s alright I understand, I have done some questionable things, I think,” Rhys replied.

“Memory issues huh? It’s alright I have them too, everything will start to come back slowly.” Jack whispered in Rhys’s ear. Rhys held back a blush, the warm breath making its way down his shirt collar, made him suddenly aware of how close they were. Instead of doing anything too embarrassing, Rhys just decided to nod. 

 

Jack, seeming to be equal parts satisfied and disappointed in that response, unwrapped his arm and made his way to the vent.

“Rhysie follow me, wanna get to know you better now that you’re part of the team. Also, show you some places we can meet up to discuss sabotage missions.” Jack winked at him as he began to disappear into ink in the vent.

“W-Wait! What do I do?” Tim asked as he ran toward the vent. Jack’s form, from the torso up, appeared from the ink on the front of the vent, causing him to appear right in Tim’s face. Tim made a yelping noise and fell on the ground.

“Um, just do whatever you were doing before. Just don’t clean off that ink spot I told you not to. Oh! And draw another picture of me, but not with the “Life Giver” this time.” Jack answered him. With that, he disappeared into ink, and into the vent. Rhys followed him, just knowing how to do it. 

 

Rhys followed Jack through twists and turns, seeming to go upwards. They kept going for what seemed to be an hour but was probably just fifteen minutes. Until the vents seemed to be getting lighter and they emerged onto a bigger area. When Rhys reformed outside the vent he noticed Jack was already waiting with his back to him. He was standing on the roof in a wide stance, his hands on his hips and feet shoulder width apart, staring at the cityscape. Rhys walked next to him and joined him, looking off the roof. From the top of the skyscraper, the view was breathtaking. The sunlight in the blue sky, slightly obscured by clouds, reflected off the windows of the other buildings. This city, while not the biggest Rhys had ever seen, was a decent size, with quite a number of business and residential areas. They seemed to be in the more business side of town, as they were in the clump of the tallest buildings, around them were smaller buildings and farther out was green, sliced into pieces by motorways. Looking up in the sky Rhys could spot a few planes traveling overhead. Rhys hummed taking in the sight.

“Enjoying the view?” Jack asked him, Rhys looked at him, and for a split second thought he saw Jack pouting this, was quickly replaced with a smirk.

“Yes, It’s breathtaking doesn't you think,” Rhys said smiling, looking back at the city.

“Sure is.” Jack breathed, Rhys turned to look at Jack again but found him turning around to walk away from the edge.

“So, we gotta discuss what we're going to do first right? That is why you brought me up here.” Rhys asked following him.

Jack frowned,”Yeah, yeah. Alright so first what we have to do is some recon, figure out which toadies have the suckiest idea. Then fuck up everyone else's.” Jack explained smirking by the end of his statement.

“Sounds easy enough,” Rhys replied, “Alright, so just tell me where half of them are, and I’ll investigate them. You investigate the other half, and we can meet here and discuss.” Rhys said starting to walk towards the vent.

“Oh wow, wow there cupcake!” Jack quickly interjected grabbing Rhys's arm, then looking down and seeing he had grabbed it and let go.

“I think it would be better if we went together,” Jack said quickly before Rhys could ask about him grabbing him.

“Why? We’d cover more ground, quicker if we split up.” Rhys questioned.

“Well you see princess, you don’t know the layout, and I do. Also if we both see all of them we can make a better decision about which one sucks the hardest.” Jack smirked at Rhys.

“Alright then lead the way,” Rhys said, stepping out of the way of the vent, and motioning for Jack to lead the way. Jack just gave him a smirk and a wink when he disappeared into the vent, Rhys following soon after.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Senpai wants you to notice him.
> 
> Also sorry for the short chapter.


	5. Chapter 5: Getting to know you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack tells us a little more about himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fanfiction is based off of The Animated for Terror au:  
> http://shadowfear-art.tumblr.com/post/157640937459/i-was-inspired-by-the-game-demo-bendy-and-the-ink  
> by Shadowfear.

Jack and Rhys eventually made it back to Tim’s workshop. In the hour os so they had been gone Jack had shown Rhys around the building, and they spied on some of the… creative minds behind some of the ideas for the antagonists Jack would be competing against.  
“I still think that the Captain Scarlet chick was a good idea,” Jack said loudly, scaring Tim as he was finishing up getting his office cleaned of ink. Rhys shrugged, “I mean she’s ok definitely, but maybe the wrong setting? She’d do better on a pirate ship than a high-tech facility trying to turn the moon into a spaceship.”  
“Yeah, that's fair.” Jack replied, “As long as we both agree that having balloon tits have an evil twin running Hyperion, and trying to kill everyone with her dominatrix soldiers is a horrible fucking idea than were good.”

“You’re back.” Tim sighed. Jack gave him a winning grin before moving over to look at what he was working on, “Yeah, and that's coming along nicely Tim tams! Although it would be a challenge to make my handsome mug look bad.” Rhys leaned close to Jack looking over Tim’s shoulder at the drawing as well. It was a depiction of Jack, his foot right foot propped up on the head of a psycho. He was holding his gun up with his left right hand and giving a winning smirk and wink to the observer. Rhys smiled at the drawing, “Nice work Tim, it's really neat and well drawn.” Rhys gave Tim a pat on the shoulder and moved away to look at the rest of the room. He, however, missed Jack trying to wrap his arm around Rhys, and the glare he shot Tim as well as the way Tim withered under the glare.

“You’ve been working really hard, the workshop looks,” Rhys glances at the large ink stain on the wall he vaguely remembered Jack telling time not to clean,”Near spotless. Like nothing ever happened,” He turned back to Tim, finding him blushing.  
“Yeah thanks, I like to keep my workshop neeeaaaaa,” Tim devolved into whimpering midsentence finding that Jack's glare had not only not stopped but had increased in intensity, to the point where he looked about ready to murder Tim. Rhys frowned at Jack, who immediately stopped and just gave him a somewhat nervous smirk. Rhys frowned, what had gotten into Jack? He wasn’t like this before. It didn’t matter whatever it was it could wait, they had work to do.

“Alright, we need to discuss our findings and figure out which people to sabotage,” Rhys stated. Jack rolled his eyes, “It’s pretty obvious princess the 3 that get to live, the kinky soap opera cliche, the golem thing that makes no fucking sense, and the wereskag. Like what the fuck? Why would you think a wereskag den was a good idea? It’s like fucking twilight but with disgusting inbred bandit scum, and why he ever thought that leopard print and hot pink top hat was a good idea I just…” Jack rants pacing back and forth. Rhys nodded, the rest weren’t too bad, but those three were definitely… special. Tim just gave Rhys a concerned look, “Please don’t tell me someone actually made a wereskag in a leopard print and hot pink top hat,” Tim asked almost pleadingly. Rhys simply shook his head sadly, “It's name was Sir Brettingham Jonathan Christopher the Thirty-Second of Old Haven,” Tim paled considerably and Jack covered his face with his hand at hearing the name again.

“I have never heard a name that fucking stupid in my life pumpkin,” Jack leaned against the the wall, “And I have heard a lot of stupid fucking names in my line of work Rhysie.” Rhys’ eyes widened his eyes considerably with the realization, nobody actually knew what it was Jack did. Rhys glanced at Tim as he seemed to realize this as well. “Um, Jack?” Rhys said tentatively,  
“Yeah what is it sweet cheeks?” Jack responded,  
“Well, what exactly is it that you do?” Rhys continued looking at Jack. Jack’s eyes shot open and pushed off from where he was relaxing against the wall. “Wait, hold on a minute,” Jack said glancing in between Tim and Rhys, who were looking at him expectantly, “I haven’t told you what I do have I?” Jack finished. Rhys and Tim shook their heads in unison, their attention completely on Jack in curiosity. “Well you see I’m the CEO of Hyperion,” Jack said proudly,

“Wait isn't the animation studio called Hyperion?” Rhys asked, genuinely confused how the company could be in the animation and in this ‘real world’. Jack frowned, before Tim cut in with an explanation, “The guys in charge thought making the most successful company in the cartoon have the same name as our animation studio, that I would somehow make the viewers unconsciously think that we were on top of the game.” Both Jack and Rhys frowned at that,  
“That sounds really dumb, aren’t Hyperion supposed to be the bad guys? By that logic, it would also convince your audience that you were all evil and a bunch of cutthroat douchebags.” Rhys stated bluntly. Tim shrugged, “I mean you’re not wrong, also never said I thought it was a good idea, just what the guys in charge thought was a good idea.”

“Now that we got Tim’s stupid version of Hyperion with its idiot bosses out of the way, let's talk about my superior version of Hyperion with great leadership and productivity, I would know I run the place,” Jack cut in pausing shortly the wink at Rhys before continuing,”At Hyperion, we make guns, but not just any old guns, the best high-quality guns money can buy. I always make sure I hire the most competent staff,” Jack added something Rhys couldn’t quite hear under his breath before continuing again, “I take care of my brilliant company from the safety of space, with my absolute beauty of a space station called Helios. It’s a fortress and fucking beautiful, I work and live there in my penthouse apartment, with my diamond pony,” Jack leaned into Rhys wrapping his arm around his shoulders,” That's a living pony made of diamond, by the way, Her name’s Butt Stallion! I-” Rhys cut him off,

“Wait her? You named a female horse Butt Stallion?” Rhys asked incredulously, Jack simply nodded, “You know Stallions are male horses right?” Rhys continued frowning.  
“Eh whatever, the point is it’s a living diamond horse! Come on that's pretty cool and impressive, right? Impressive!” Jack insisted, Rhys nodded,  
“That is kind of impressive, I’ve never seen a living horse made of diamond before” Rhys replied,  
“Neither have I…” Tim added quietly, Jack just shot him an annoyed look.  
“Yes, my diamond pony is impressive, naturally, anyway I live in my penthouse with the pony and my daughter Angel-” Jack was cut off once again as Rhys turned to look at him face on, Tim also perked up at the mention of a daughter,

“You have a daughter?” Tim and Rhys asked in unison. Jack nodded proudly, “My little Angel, she’s smart and has these special siren powers. One day there was an accident, though,” Jack seemed to mellow out a little, “She accidently killed her mother with her powers…” Jack paused and the room fell into silence as both the other inhabitants waited for Jack to regroup himself. After a few minutes of silence, Jack seemed to regroup himself, “After that, I had to be a bit more careful with her, but I was determined that she was going to grow up into a strong and confident young woman. My Angel has certainly done that, she’s brilliant, I’ve hired her the best tutor money can buy, I didn’t want anyone finding out about her powers so I pulled her out of public school and taught her everything myself until I was able to hire a tutor. She beautiful too, got the looks from me naturally,” He beamed and winked at Rhys,”And she’s not only learned to control her powers but has used them to help me out with things on multiple occasions! My little beautiful Angel, she’s the light of my life.” Rhys smiled at Jack as he went on about his daughter, It was nice, he seemed to really love and care about her. When Jack finished he noticed Rhys smiling at him and beamed back, eyes sparkling in a pleasant way.

“So, in short, Jack is the Ceo of Hyperion that sells guns, has a pony and daughter, and we’re going to ink every project except for the wereskag, the evil twin, and the robot thing?” Tim broke the silence, and Rhys broke eye contact with Jack.  
“Yeah that's about it,” Rhys replied, “I’ll sabotage the ones on the right side of the building, Jack you take the left?” Rhys turned around back to Jack, who simply nodded.  
“Actually,” Tim interjected, “Rhys can you do all of them? I need to talk to Jack and it might take a while?”. Rhys nodded, “Of course” and with that, he walked over to the vent and disappeared inside.

Jack immediately gave Tim the stink eye, “Ok what is going on” Tim said slightly panicking as Jack only narrowed his eyes.  
“Whats going on Tim? I don’t know I don’t see anything weird going on do you?” Jack said tensely.  
“Yes! Yes, I do! Ever since you’ve got back from showing Rhys around you’ve been acting weird, like hostile towards me?!” Tim stated. Jack simply looked to the side and gave him the side eye before looking adding, “You’re not interested in Rhys are you?” Tim was taken aback as he suddenly realized why Jack was action so strangely.  
“No, he’s all yours?” Tim replied warily, Jack immediately started smirking again, as if nothing was ever wrong, “Great to hear pumpkin! Cause you know,” Jack leaned in so that he was mere inches from Tim’s face, “I don’t respond well to competition.” Tim gulped and quickly nodded, understanding what Jack meant by that very clearly.  
“Great kiddo! Now, what did you want to talk to me about or was that it? Because that didn’t take very long.” Jack asked Tim, shook his head,  
“No, When you were talking about your daughter, Angel, I realized I need to ask you about your past. They’ll ask about your backstory, so the more info I can get the better.”

Jack nodded, “Alright I guess I can tell you about what makes Handsome Jack the greatest!”  
“Honesty please!” Tim quickly interjected before Jack could start, already know he was going to spin a tall tale. “If it’s not the truth they won’t like it at all, and that would ruin our chances,” Tim added, Jack just grumbled and started to tell him about his past.

Tim remained quiet throughout the whole thing, as it seemed like it would be a bad idea to ask more questions. Jack explained how his mother had dumped him with his abusive grandmother, who he eventually murdered. He explained how he started at Hyperion and met Angel’s mother, and how they got married. He explained how he took care of Angel after her death while making his way up the ladder of Hyperion. He explained how he had dated Moxxi until she and her bandit friends betrayed him, and her siren bitch friend Lilith had tried to punch a vault relic into his face, but Angel had been able to stop her. He ended with how he abandoned the relic in favor to protect his daughter, and how he and Athena had made their way back to Helios, and Athena had taken care of Angel with he strangled his boss to death to finally become the CEO of Hyperion and provide a better, safer life for Angel.

Tim nodded taking it all in, “That was a lot, but thanks for telling me.” Jack just grunted scowling at the wall. When he finally finished his staring match with the wall, he sighed and mumbled “I hope Angel is ok.” Tim nodded understanding why he’d be worried.  
“Don't worry,” Tim said standing up, Jack glanced over to the side to look at him, “If I have any say in what happens in the show, I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to her.” Jack looked at him surprised before breaking into a smirk. He walked over and smacked the back of Tim’s shoulder, “I bet you will Tim tams, I bet you will.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a Tumblr surprisingly:  
> https://esperosisisaloser.tumblr.com/


	6. Chapter 6: The Selection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Tim to pitch his idea, now if only he could figure out where Rhys and Jack had run off to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fanfiction is based off of The Animated for Terror au:  
> http://shadowfear-art.tumblr.com/post/157640937459/i-was-inspired-by-the-game-demo-bendy-and-the-ink  
> by Shadowfear.

Tim was nervous. He hadn't seen Jack or Rhys anywhere since Jack had followed Rhys into the vents last night. He had looked everywhere for them but they had just disappeared. He would be still looking if he hadn't had to head over to the meeting room where the projects were due.

That was another reason he was nervous. The projects were due right now and he didn't even know if Jack and Rhys were successful in sabotaging the other projects. What if they didn’t do it? What if he was up against a bunch of projects that were really good? What if jack wasn’t chosen. What was Jack going to do to him??? Tim had to force himself to calm down and breathe.

 _”It’ll be ok, they did their part of the deal, now it's my turn.”_ Tim exhaled all of his nervous energy then took a deep breath and entered the meeting room.

When he entered it seemed only him and three other people were in the room. They were each looking at their papers with different expressions. Tiffany, a woman who had been working at the studio for three years was staring at her drawing and notes giggling excitedly, the only thing Tim really knew about her other than how long she worked at the studio was that she was very… eccentric, but also very creative. The second was a man Tim had forgotten the name of and knew nothing about, but he seemed to be very confident in his design and was lazily leaning back in his chair, only occasionally glanced and let out a hotty chuckle at everyone else. The third was another woman Tim knew nothing about, and she also seemed to be in the middle of a panic attack, and she was scribbling all over her notes as if she were possessed.

Tim made his way over to the third woman and sat down next to her. He peeked over at her design and realized it was the golem that Jack and Rhys had mentioned. He then slowly came to a realization, _it was 5 minutes until the meeting and only three other people were here_. Well at least Tim knew that Jack and Rhys had kept their word, all the other were probably rushing to scrap together anything they could in the little time they had left.

Tim took one last look over his notes on what Jack had told him and decided if Jack’s claims were true, he was a shoe in for the selection. Tim was officially on cloud nine, momentarily forgetting that Jack and Rhys were still missing, and he settled down and got comfortable in his seat as he waited for the higher ups to arrive.

It was a few minutes and an almost mental breakdown from Juliet, that's what she said her name was when Tim was hugging her to get her to stop crying, later when the higher-ups arrived, with a few lower employees on their tail.  
“B-B-But sirs, we understand policy but were we sabotaged! All of our things were ruined! If you would please reconsid-”  
“No. The Policy is that you have a drawing and notes on the character to give to use during the review, and if you don’t have that then you’re ideas will not be considered. If you really wanted your ‘brilliant’ ideas to be included, you should have taken better care of your materials.” Collins, the head of Writing, shutting the door on their line of pleading and on their face as he entered followed by Alexander and Lucas, the heads of Character design and the head of Marketing respectively.  
Lucas looked at the four people sitting at the meeting table in the room,  
“only four of you? Well at least this will be over quickly,” he sighed taking a seat at the head of the table with the other two department heads.

“Alright let's get this over with… you.” Collins pointed at Tiffany, “Let's start with you then go down the line.” Tim let out a quiet sigh of relief as Tiffany got up and practically skipped to the department head handing them her drawing and notes before making her way to the front of the room, this meant he was going last. Tim braced himself as he saw the department heads looking at each other with utter befuddlement, and heard Tiffany take a deep breath.

“ **ALRIGHT** so his name is Sir Brettingham Jonathan Christopher the Thirty-Second of Old Haven, and he is a were-skag. Now I know you’re probably thinking! Tiffany, how is a were-skag going to be an issue? And I’ll tell ya! He has an army of were-skags! AN ARMY, like so many, Bruisers, Nomads, midget psychos! They’re all were-skags! Now they live in a den under Old Haven and they’re plotting on opening a vault to turn everyone on Pandora into were-skags! It’s diabolical I know!” Tiffany spouted off in one breath. The Department heads began looking at one another as if this were some kind of prank while Tiffany panted, trying to catch her breath.

When It became rather obvious this wasn’t a joke and was, in fact, her actual idea, the department head began muttering to each other, until Lucas turned to Tiffany and asked, “Why the top hat?” Tiffany shrugged, “Dunno thought it made him look like a cool were-skag pimp.” The second guy at the table struggled to not to break into hysterical laughter while Lucas just gave her a defeated sigh, and told her to sit back down. Collins then called up the douche guy and he quickly composed himself and walked up to the department heads and handed them his notes and drawing and walked up to the front of the room. He then cleared his throat and began,

“My name is Jacob, and my idea was an evil twin of Moxxi who is running Hyperion. My reasoning for this is that Moxxi is a beloved character in the show, so bringing in a twin of Moxxi would make it a bit more complicated of an antagonist and it would create a great chemistry between her and her twin, also since they’re both rather attractive it would be a treat for our male viewers.” after he had finished the department heads began discussing amongst each other. Tim picked up a lot of frowning and shrugging before Lucas finally turned toward Jacob.  
“Alright we have a few questions for you,” Jacob nodded, “First, why would an evil twin of Moxxi be running Hyperion. Second Why are all of the soldier's women wearing scantily clad armor, instead of practical armor? And Third, you mentioned that it would be a treat for our male viewers, but do you not think that our female viewers would get a bit offended by the portrayal of these women?” Jacob nodded, staying quiet for a minute as he thought of good answers to the questions, it was about a minute before he finally spoke back up.

“For your first great question, it would be because she wanted money, we know that Moxxi likes money, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for her twin to also be looking for riches. For your second question it's because Moxxi’s twin has similar tastes to Moxxi and again it would be a treat for the guys. Which leads me to your third question, I mean who cares about the female viewers the male viewers are where it's at!” Jacob answered. Lucas gave Jacob a pained expression as Tim ran his hands down his face realizing it was going to be a long day. Tim was still rubbing his temples as Jacob sat down in a bubble of pure self-satisfaction, and without being asked Juliet stood up and shuffled over to the department heads handing them her idea then shuffling to the head of the room.

“H-Hello, my name is Juliet, and my idea is an eridium fueled golem. The golem needs eridium to survive so it’s ripping the planet apart to try and get to it. Now the inhabitants don’t like this because they live there so they have to go on a quest to get the proper weapons to defeat the golem.” Juliet sputtered, nervously looking at the floor the entire time. The department heads looked at each other and again began the short, but nerve-racking process of discussing amongst themselves until once again Lucas turn the look at Juliet.  
“Alright, so our first question is how large is this golem compared to a normal sized person. Second, where did it come from.” Juliet seemed to pale considerably at the second question, and Tim started to feel really bad for her as she stuttered out,  
“W-W-Well the G-Golem is about Fi-fifty times as large a-as a regu-lar person, b-b-but as t-t-to where it comes f-from I’m n-n-not exactly s-sure,” She quickly added, “But I’ll figure it out!” But Lucas shook his head, “Please sit back down.” Juliet looked utterly crushed, and she slumped and stared at the ground as she slowly made her way back to her seat next to Tim. Tim swallowed hard realizing it was his turn. He stood up and let out a breath calming himself down, he had the best chance out of all of the ideas, especially because he was going last. He walked over to the department heads and handed him his notes and drawing, Collins looked at him and sighed under his breath, “Please tell me you have an idea that isn't awful, incomplete, or terribly offensive.” Tim, quickly realizing he wanted and answer responded, “No sir! My idea is none of those things.” he said as Collins look a look at the drawing offered to him my Alexander, “Well at least he looks normal.” Tim nodded and turned away and walked to the front of the room confidently, he had this in the bag. He quickly collected himself and began.

“My name is Timothy, and my character’s name is Handsome Jack, he’s the CEO of Hyperion. He has a daughter named Angel whom is a siren that he loves very much, but is very protective of due to her abilities so he doesn’t let her outside their penthouse very often. He Hired Athena after the events of the last season and together; He, Athena, Roland, Lilith, and Moxxi, set off to open the vault of the sentinel on Elpis. They were successful but were betrayed by Lilith, Roland, and Moxxi, because of this he killed the current CEO of Hyperion, Harold Tassiter, and became the CEO and is out for revenge against them, as well as after opening the vault of the warrior down on Pandora.” Tim looked at the Department heads and found that they didn’t seem to hate the idea, and were avidly discussing the idea between themselves before Lucas turned to him and began his list of questions,  
“First why did Lilith, Roland, and Moxxi betray him? Second, why did Athena agree to help him? Third how old is his daughter? Where is Angel’s mother in this?” Tim sighed, thankful the questions were things Jack had told him so he didn’t have to have to make something up on the spot and possibly incur Jack’s wrath.  
“First, because they didn’t want him to have that much power. Second is because Athena needed a paying job. Third is she’s about 19-20, and fourth is she died a long time earlier when Angel was around 6 due to her losing control of her siren powers, Jack then raised her on his own.” Lucas nodded seeming to accept the answers, 

“Alright I think we’ve come to a decision,” Lucas said looking directly at Tim. Jacob quickly butted in  
“B-But don’t you think you need more time to, you know, mull things over?” Jacob simply shook his head,  
“No, we are sure that we want to go with Tim’s idea, congratulations.” Tim beamed and walked forward to the department heads.  
“Thank you, sirs! I’ll make sure not to let you down as things move forward.” Lucas smiled, shaking Tim’s hand,  
“I’m sure you won’t”

Tim shook the other two department heads hands and made his way back to his workshop. Rhys and Jack were going to be so happy to hear the good news!

  
Up on the roof, the meeting room victory was the furthest thing from the toons minds as Jack ran his hand through Rhys’ hair as his head rested on his lap and thought back, for about the hundredth time, to when he found Rhys on the roof last night.

Rhys was sitting on the edge of the building with his legs crossed in front of him. It was the last few minutes of light before the twilight gave way to night, the dying light painting Rhys’ pure white skin in shades of warm oranges and reds, and turning his hair a burning auburn. The wind softly tugged at his hair and clothing as he started at the sun setting over the buildings, the rays painting the sky in beautiful stripes. When Jack first saw him he forgot how to breathe, and he found the only thing he could see, the only thing he wanted to see was the way the sunlight painted the white canvas of his skin. At that moment he forgot all of the reasons he thought he couldn’t have the beautiful piece of art in front of him and walked up behind him. Rhys turned around to look at him, his usually pure black eyes were now brown and held twilight fires, and before he could utter a word and ruin the illusion. Jack kissed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a Tumblr now! Join me for my terrible borderlands art and my equally terrible Borderlands shitposting:  
> https://esperosisisaloser.tumblr.com//


	7. Chapter 7: Turn off the Radio or I swear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like near pointless fluff and almost smut.
> 
> Please keep these feeling in your heart as you are about to get side swiped by the 'Someone don fucked up train' and then ran over by the 'OH SHIT OH FUCK' Car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fanfiction is based off of The Animated for Terror au:  
> http://shadowfear-art.tumblr.com/post/157640937459/i-was-inspired-by-the-game-demo-bendy-and-the-ink  
> by Shadowfear.

It was 3 hours and one almost mental breakdown later that Rhys and Jack finally returned to Tim’s workshop. Tim was equal parts glad and worried at their return, what the hell were they doing that took them nearly 18 hours to return?

As Rhys materialized into Tim’s office he was immediately bombarded with questions.  
“Where were you guys! Where is Jack? What did you do? Is anyone hurt? Are you hurt? Can you get hurt? Is Jack hurt? Did he hurt someone? How-” Tim was cut off by Jack announcing loudly as he entered the workshop,  
“God kiddo! Enough with all the questions! What are you our mom?” Jack scoffed and hooked his arm around Rhys, and Rhys, surprisingly, didn’t react!  
_“They seem a lot friendlier than when they left,”_ Tim mused to himself as he sat back down letting out a long sigh. Rhys leaned against jack and let out a smaller more contented sigh.

“For your questions, we’ve been on the roof, yes for the whole time. Jack is here, we were just hanging out,” jack let out a snort at that and Rhys squawked as Jack dropped his arm off his shoulder to pinch Rhys’s ass, Rhys let out a huff then side stepped away from Jack before continuing.

“Nobody is hurt, neither of us is hurt, I’m not sure if I can get hurt, and no he didn’t hurt anyone. Is that better?” Tim nodded, then suddenly remembered why he wanted to find them so badly.  
“Oh guys I went to the meeting earlier and sure enough the department heads picked Jack for the antagonist.” Rhys beamed and this, and Jack smirked as well and shrugged, “I’m the goddamn hero, but at least they didn't have the nerve to pick me over some human, skag, bastard child from hell.” Tim nodded.

Tim, decided since it was towards the end of the day, and he didn’t really have anything to do, he’d head home. One issue with that, he didn’t really know what he was going to do with Rhys and Jack. However when Tim expressed these concerns Jack just scoffed at him,  
“We’ll just jump into some paper and take the paper in your pocket until we get to your house, it’s not rocket science cupcake,” And that was how Tim ended up in his car with two toons in the back seat arguing over the radio.

“Look cupcake, I realize that you’re from back in the day, but if I have to listen to one more song by Journey I’m going to shoot myself,” Jack stated as he moved to lean next to Tim to try and change the station. He was quickly intercepted by Rhys who grabbed his arm and pulled him back next to him in the back seat,

“And if I have to listen to Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood one more time I am going to crash the damn car!” Rhys responded incredulously, they proceeded to glare and pout at each other until Tim decided he should step in before either of them made true on their threats.  
“How about we listen to this?” Tim cut in changing it to soft classical music. Both parties seemed to grumble a bit, Rhys pouting out the window, with Jack just store holes into Tim’s head, but besides that, they both piped down.  
This, thankfully, lasted until Tim got to his apartment. Upon the toons exiting the piece of paper in Tim’s pocket and seeing the apartment, they both had quite different reactions to the apartment.  
“This is so homey! My friend Vaughn and I lived in an apartment just like this!” Rhys laughed looking around while Jack just scoffed, he’d been doing a lot of that,  
“Yeah, it’s small, though, my penthouse is like ten times bigger, way more impressive.” He said looking over at Rhys, who was looking around the kitchen in delight. Tim just awkwardly chuckled, suddenly very self-conscious about the messy state of his living quarters,  
_“Though it’s not like I have any time to fix up the place,”_ Tim thought to himself,

“Do you guys need to eat?” Tim asked, Rhys and Jack nodded their heads and Jack asked,  
“Got anything to drink?” Tim nodded and got a glass of water for each of them then turned away to grab a plate from his cabinet to make a sandwich on, and when he turned around the glasses they both were holding were empty. Jack shoved the glass into Tim’s face, and he gingerly took it, while gently taking the glass from Rhys as well. He glanced at both toons with a mix of surprise and confusion, before it became apparent that they wanted more, and hurried to fill up the glasses again. He handed the full glass of water to Jack and Rhys and then stopped to watch as both toons drained the water in one go. Tim again took the glasses from the toons and refilled it, and they again drank the whole thing in a matter of seconds before Rhys took Jack’s cup and put both glasses in the sink and made his way to the couch with Jack.

Tim decided to just shrug the incident off as something having to do with them being toons and began to make his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Once he was done we turned to the couch to sit with the toons to find Jack laying across the couch his head in Rhys’s lap. He decided against getting the toon to move however and just sat at the small table off the kitchen. Tim’s meal was eaten in comfortable silence as neither toons nor Tim felt the urge to make small talk, for which Tim was grateful, however, it did add to the feeling that Tim was intruding on something private when he did need to speak to them after dinner.

Tim, made small noises to try and get their attention for about five minutes before giving up and opting to just call their names. At this, they reluctantly drew their attention off of each other, and looked at Tim. Tim swallowed audibly, their gazes were so intense and it made him a bit uncomfortable, but he needed to talk to them about the next part of the plan.  
“Alright so,” Tim started “The next part of the process to getting Jack into the show is this: Now that the department heads have heard the idea they’ll talk to each other about how to fit Jack into the show-”

“Wait why the fuck would that even be necessary? I fucking live there already.” Jack cut Tim off. Tim sighed, “Yes, but they don’t know that, and they’re not going to, because saying to my boss’s boss, ‘Hey your input isn’t really needed because this character is already in the universe! How do I know that? Oh, they came to life and told me!’ isn’t the best idea.” Tim explained frowning at Jack, Jack just grumbled, Rhys however frowned,  
“By ‘fit into the universe’, what do you mean? What exactly are they going to do?” Rhys asked concerned. Tim shrugged,  
“Just change around his back story a bit, nothing too big I think,” Jack grumbled a bit louder about this, Tim took this as a sign to continue,  
“Now usually this happens after a couple of days but, since they want to get the next session out as soon as possible, it’s more likely that they’ll do it tomorrow,” Tim stated.

“Fine, whatever, I’ll just pop into a piece of paper and you can put me in your pocket again and I’ll listen in on the conversation and we’ll discuss the next step to the plan after that, sound good kiddos?” Jack announced sitting up from Rhys’s lap. Tim and Rhys nodded and Jack clapped his hands together, “fan-fucking-tastic. Where's the guest room.” Tim sighed,  
“Second door to the right.” Jack gave him a thumbs up without changing his facial expression from, bored and disinterested. He then straight-facedly picked up Rhys, slung him over his shoulder, much to Rhys’s protests, and walked down to the guest room kicking it open then kicking it closed. Tim seriously wondered about those two sometimes.

Jack and Rhys sat in the darkness of the guest room, illuminated only by a blue nightlight in the corner. It was about 2 am at this point and they both, physically, couldn't sleep. Jack had stopped trying to bug Rhys about an hour ago and just laid on the bed staring at him while Rhys sat cross-legged on the floor, looking through some picture books he found in the bookcase.  
“Tell me about yourself,” Jack blurted out without thinking. Rhys stopped flipping through the pages, and Jack stiffened when Rhys began to slowly turn around to look at him. Rhys looked at him directly in the eyes, the shadow of the nightlight obscuring his face, but Jack could just feel his eyes on his, studying him. Rhys eventually sighed after what seemed like an hour but was more likely a matter of seconds.

“My friend Vaughn and I worked in a Mafia to support our rent, though I suppose that was just another of the corporation's TV shows… We met Fiona, Sasha, and Yvette there. God, It’s so weird to realize they aren’t real, they feel so real in my memories…” Rhys trailed off for a few minutes, but Jack remained quiet, desperate to hear more. Rhys eventually continued,  
“But one day I saw something, something I wasn’t supposed to. The whole organization turned on me like that,” Rhys snapped his fingers, “Everyone except my friends, they helped me. But the mafia was on our tail so I covered their escape, that last thing I remember was a dark alley way, and rain, and looking up at the stars.” Rhys finished, looking at the floor.

Jack took Rhys’s face in his hand and moved his eyes to look back at his. They stared into each other's eyes for a while after that before Jack brought their faces together and kissed him for the second time, but this time was different. This time Rhys kissed back. They stayed like that, just holding each other in their arms and pressing their lips together, being together before. Jack realized as they kissed that Rhys filled a hole that jack hadn’t each realized was there, he made Jack feel whole again, and because of that Jack knew, as he dragged Rhys into his lap, that he was going to make Rhys his.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 things real quicky,  
> 1\. The corporation stuff I am just making up so it's prob not at all accurate, sorry  
> 2\. If you all are wondering why the Rhys in this story is a bit different than the Rhys in the actual AU the answer is rather simple, I wrote the chapter (and almost all the plot for the story) that implied the Rhys is a full toon, a few days before the update about Rhys actually being human turned toon was posted to Shadow's Tumblr, and at this point it is much too late to change it so... *Shrug* enjoy this version is suppose!
> 
> ALSO if you want to get the scoop on this fic updating before it actually updates why not visit me on my Tumblr!:  
> https://esperosisisaloser.tumblr.com/


	8. Chapter 8: And it was going so well...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Get ready for things to take a turn...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fanfiction is based off of The Animated for Terror au:  
> http://shadowfear-art.tumblr.com/post/157640937459/i-was-inspired-by-the-game-demo-bendy-and-the-ink  
> by Shadowfear.
> 
> Also get ready.

Consciousness returned to Tim in the way of an alarm clock blaring in his face. He groaned and lazily lifted his arm and smacked the infernal thing a couple of times before he finally managed to turn it off. He turned over to go back to sleep when he remembered that Jack and Rhys were in his apartment, and he probably had a meeting with the higher-ups today. Nervous energy pooled in his gut, causing his heart to beat faster, and rendering any attempt at returning to sleep null.

Tim finally rolled out of bed and shuffled out of his room, shutting the door behind him, and made his way to the small kitchen, and grabbed a cereal box out of the closet before he heard another door open and shut loudly in the apartment. Tim assumed it was Jack before he saw him, reasoning Rhys would have tried to shut the door quieter. So when Tim was prepared with Jack showed up around the corner, what he wasn’t prepared for was the fact that he was only wearing an old pair of black boxers. Tim stopped pouring his cereal and just watched Jack as he took two cups from the draw and started filling them with water. Jack caught onto him staring and gave him a smirk,

“Like what you see Tim tams?” Tim immediately turned bright red and started shaking his head,  
“N-No, I was just wondering why you were only wearing boxers?” Tim asked slowly beginning to continue pouring cereal into his bowl, Jack just gave a short laugh as he finished filling the cups  
“Well I was originally going to walk out naked, but Rhysie kept hitting me with a pillow until I agreed to put on the boxers,” Jack winked at Tim, just looked at him and sputtered,  
“Why were you..” Tim trailed off realizing what he was implying as Jack started laughing walking back over to the other room, “Ah.”

Tim decided to watch cat videos on his computer so he would not think about how such a thing would even work like they were made of ink? How would they, no no no, cat videos Tim, look at the cat videos, cute kittens... would Jack use pet names during? Stop, stop thinking about it, watch the cat videos.

When a full clothed Rhys finally appeared out of the room, a fully clothed Jack following close behind him, he gave sheepish smile.  
“Did you sleep well?” Rhys asked while Jack grabbed more water, Tim just nodded, not trusting his voice, “Hey why are you all drink so much water? You all didn’t seem so desperate for water for the last two days.” Tim asked, deciding a change of topic would be better. Rhys just shrugged,  
“Haven't really drunk any, so I guess it’s just the thirst for liquids is catching up with us? Also, we’ll have to last all day without any water or liquids so I guess that a factor too,” Jack grunted in approval as he sat down and the toons both sipped their water.

Tim looked over at the clock and sighed,  
“Alright, I’m going to go get ready for work, we have to leave in a half hour so don’t do anything ok?” Jack winked at Tim slinging an arm over Rhys’s shoulder,  
“No promises,” Tim turned red, and Rhys turned a lightish pink. Tim scurried off into his room and quickly got changed, into a yellow company sweater, his brown jacket, some blue jeans, and some brown boots. He then quickly left his room so he could hassle the toon’s into the car and, hopefully, avoid another argument about the radio station this morning.

He was able to grab two cups of coffee, and get to work with minimum arguments over the radio as the toons both agreed that there was nothing good on and had Tim just turn off the radio altogether. Tim walked into the building as greeted Meg as he always did, handing her one of the coffees.  
“Oh thank you, Tim!” Meg exclaimed, taking the coffee from him and smiling, Tim smiled back,  
“No problem Meg, have a nice day alright?”  
“I will, I hope nothing goes too wrong today for you either,” Meg called after him as he started heading down the hallway to his office. Tim smiled all the way back to his workshop.

“You too seem to like each other,” Rhys commented as he and jack slipped out of the piece of paper, “are you, friends?”  
“Yeah, we’re friends,” Tim said as he flipped through his work email on his phone, just as he suspected there was an email from Collins telling him he and the other department heads would like to speak with him about further fleshing out his character.  
“Alright so it says in this email they want to talk to me about Jack in two hours, sounds good?” Tim said looking up at Rhys and Jack, Rhys nodded and Jack just winked and gave him finger guns.

The next two hours were of Tim drawing jack in different poses, or trying to at least. Jack was either pointing stuff out and berating him, or he was trying to take his clothes off to ‘give him a better idea of his anatomy,’ Rhys, however, was able to prevent him from getting naked. He wasn’t, however, able to prevent Jack from making sure Tim got zero work done.

When it was fifteen minutes before the meeting Tim got out a fresh piece of paper and set it on the desk,  
“Alright it’s time to head over, jack climb in the paper,” Tim said,  
“Alright geez kiddo, no need to rush me,” Jack grumbled as he began climbing into the paper.  
“Hey wait, guys should I do something while you guys are at the meeting? I don’t really want to be hanging out here on my own” Rhys frowned, Tim and Jack looked at each other for a moment before Jack suggested,  
“Why not try and find the imprisoner cupcake? Gives you something to do and keeps the thing out of the hands of the idiots,” Rhys let out a thoughtful noise,  
“Where did you find the pen?”  
“Um, just some old forgotten storage closet on the opposite side of the building,” Tim replied, Rhys, nodded and climbed into the vent as Jack finished climbing into the paper.

Tim folded up the piece of paper and put it in his leather jacket’s pocket. He headed to the meeting room where he’d need to meet the department heads. He took a deep breathe in front of the meeting room door once he arrived, he looked down to his jacket pocket,  
“Ready?” Tim whispered, his pocket shifted around a bit and Tim took that as a ‘yes’ or know Jack it was probably more of a ‘let's just get this over with’ and with that Tim entered the room.

When Tim entered the room he was greeted with the three department heads chatting amongst themselves, but they quickly quieted down when they noticed Tim entering the room.  
“Ah Tim, you’re right on time, here take a seat,” Collins said, gesturing to a seat across the meeting room table from the three of the department heads. Tim sat down across from the department heads and waited for them to begin speaking, it didn’t take long as Collins began,  
“So, we’ve looked over Jack’s backstory and personality and honestly I must congratulate you, he is an amazing character,”  
“Thank you, sir,” Tim said,  
“Yes, yes, though when we were looking at it, we do have a few changes in mind to make him even better, nothing too extreme,”  
“Alright, what are they, sir?” Tim said he could feel his heart pounding.

“So we were looking over his backstory, and it was very tragic that his wife died, and he was very good at taking care of Angel afterward,” Collins continued, “However that is a slight issue.”  
“Issue?” Tim asked, subtly slipping his hand into his pocket as he felt the paper shift a bit at the mention of Angel.  
“Yes, you see he’s a likable character, but he’s still the antagonist so while it's good to have him have likable traits, too many and the audience will start to want him to have a redemption arc instead of being defeated, understand?”  
“Yes sir, but if you don’t mind me asking what wrong with him having a redemption arc?” Tim asked,  
“Well redemption arcs are fine, but we still need a big bad enemy we don’t need to feel too good about killing, that's Jack understand?” Tim nodded and Collins continued, “So to combat the problem of him being possibly too likable we came up with an alternate turn of events. After Angel accidently kills her mother, Jack goes a bit insane and locks angel up to control her powers, then starts using her siren powers for his own personal gain.” Tim just nodded numbly as he kept a death grip on the piece of paper in his pocket, all too aware of what would happen if he let go.

“A during the events of the upcoming season, Angel will be stationed in a base on Pandora and will be helping Jack trick the vault hunters, but he’ll also be amplifying her powers via pumping eridium into her. That is all we have written down for the moment but what do you think?” Tim just sat there trying not to let his rising panic show on his face and instead just save the department heads a small nod and replied,  
“Sounds good to me sir, that you for choosing my character, sir.” Collins just laughed and nodded,  
“Alright, we’ll be contacting you more often through the process as we’d like you to be the head of the team animating Jack, but that's all for now.” Tim nodded and stood up said his goodbyes, and left.

He kept an iron grip onto the piece of paper until he finally got into his workshop, finding Rhys sitting at his desk.  
“Great news you guys I-” Rhys was cut off as the second Tim’s hand realized from the slip of paper and geyser of ink erupted from Tim’s pocket. Jack quickly reformed not three inches from Tim’s face.

“ ** _WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT TIM?!?! A FEW SMALL CHANGES YOU SAID, YOU CALL THAT A FEW SMALL CHANGES?!?!_** ” Jack roared in Tim's face. Tim was frozen in fear, unable to break eye contact with Jack, as Rhys squirmed in between them,  
“OK wow! Calm down right now Jack,” Rhys cut in putting both hands on Jack’s chest pushing him backward and away from Tim, “I’m sure whatever happened it wasn’t Tim’s fault… What happened anyway?” Jack just snarled and began pacing the workshop. Tim gulped as Rhys turned to him expectantly.  
“Ok, so you know how I said last night they wanted to talk to me about a few small changes to Jack’s character and his backstory?” Rhys nodded, “Well, they made a few more changes then I expected, namely making so Jack was an abusive father instead of a good one…” Tim mumbled out, Rhys looked at him utterly shocked,  
“ _WHAT_? Why!” Tim just shrugged and shook his head,  
“Something about redemption arcs, and how Jack need to not be nice because it makes it harder for the audience to be rooting to kill him?” Tim replied Rhys, shook his head,

“This is not good, we need to find some way to fix this… Wait where’s Jack?” Both Tim and Rhys frantically looked around the room, but Jack was nowhere to be seen. A look of realization and horror formed on Tim’s face as he realized what happened,  
“The department heads…” Tim gasped, Rhys a look of panic crossed Rhys’s features as he yelled at Tim to stay where he was, and climbed into the vent as quick as he could.

  
Rhys made his way as quickly as he could to the meeting rooms but when he arrived he was already too late. What he saw as he reformed in the meeting room was barely human, just a bass of deep paint and a yellow glowing upside down scar on the thing’s face. The department heads were nowhere to be seen but Rhys had an idea as to where they were. Rhys cleared his throat,  
“Jack?” The thing shifted and looked at him, “Please try to calm down ok? It’s just me, ok?” Rhys reached and arm out to the thing and it continued to stare at him. He reached his hand out and cupped Jack’s face in his hand and slowly pulled him to his chest, Jack just let him. Rhys just held Jack in his arm and just hummed and stroked his hair and Jack gradually began to calm down and revert to his normal state. Halfway through the process, however, he heard a commotion from outside the door and knew they needed to move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a Tumblr yell at me for killing off characters on it:  
> https://esperosisisaloser.tumblr.com//
> 
> Also yeah... on the down side three people are dead, on the bright side I know how many chapters are left, on the other downside(or upside depending on how you look at it) not too many...  
> Please note that Chapter 10 is the final chapter in the series and Chapter 11 will be more of an Epilogue.


	9. Chapter 9: Panic! at the Office

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to play damage control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure you realize by now but this was base off an AU made by the wonderful Shadowfear:  
> http://shadowfear-art.tumblr.com/post/157640937459/i-was-inspired-by-the-game-demo-bendy-and-the-ink

The second Rhys left through the vent, Tim began his terrified pacing of his workshop. What the fuck was Jack doing? Was he going to hurt the department heads? Was he going to _kill_ them? Oh dear god Rhys better get there quickly. After Tim had worked himself into a near frenzy, he decided he needs to check on what was going on, for the sake of his own sanity at the least.

Tim poked his head out of his workshop as someone rushed by, heading further into the building. He was able to pick up of hushed whispers further into the building. Tim cautiously walked down the hallway towards the hushed whispering.  
“Somethings going on in one of the meeting rooms? What's happened?"

_Don’t Panic..._

“Nobody knows, security isn't letting anyone through… But from what I heard there was ink everywhere!”

**_Don’t Panic._ **

“Yeah! And from what I can tell three department heads had a meeting in the room before the incident, and nobody can find them??”

**_DON’T PANIC_ **

Tim was panicking, and quickly backed up and walked quickly back to his workshop before a loud shout of his name stopped him from opening the door. Tim cursed under him breathe as he calmed himself down, turning around to face Vasquez.  
“Tim what the hell did you do!” Vasquez snapped at him scowling as he got into Tim’s personal space  
“What do you mean what did I do? I didn't do anything!” Tim snapped back, forgetting all about his near panic attack mere moments ago, now offended that Vasquez was blaming this whole thing on him! Nevermind that it was partially his fault!  
“The department heads are gone and ink is all over the meeting room! You were the last person to talk to them you must have done something to them!” Vasquez loudly accused Tim.  
“Yeah! I was in a meeting with them! And guess was Assquez! THEY WERE FINE WHEN I LEFT! ALSO WHAT REASON WOULD I HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO THEM, I WAS GETTING WHAT I WANTED!” Tim practically screamed in Vasquez’s face, ignoring the crowd gathering around them, all of his nervousness fueling his rage. He heard mumbling in the crowd, realized to here that most people thought that Tim had a point, Vasquez, on the other hand, looked about ready to punch him but instead just spat in his face,  
“I’m keeping my eye on you Timothy!” and stormed off shoving people to the sides as he continued farther into the building.

Tim at this point couldn't be bothered to care as he opened his workshop, slipped inside and slammed the door behind him. He whipped around still scowling as he was met by an unconscious Jack collapsed in Rhys’ arms as they both sat on the floor. Tim took a deep breathe as he tried to calm himself down. Rhys watched warily as Tim ran a hand through his hair before asking Rhys,  
“Rhys, what the hell happened?” Rhys looked down at the unconscious toon laying in his arms and replied why running his hand through his hair,  
“From what I can tell, Jack worked himself into a rage at the thought of someone hurting Angel and… Well, I think he absorbed your bosses.”  
“Absorbed?”  
“Yes.”  
“Like..?”  
“He took the prisoner and forced them to drink it then absorbed the ink they turned into.”  
Tim threw his hands in the air,  
“PERFECT THIS IS JUST PERFECT! AND I DOUBT HE DID THAT IN A STEALTHY MANNER TO AVOID BEING SEEN BY THE SECURITY CAMERAS IN THE MEETING ROOM DID HE!?!” Rhys looked at the ground without replying. Tim took his jacket off, bunched it up in a ball and screamed into it, this was officially the worst day ever.  
“I’m really sorry for all the trouble we’ve caused Tim, we didn’t want any of this to happen to you.” Rhys insisted, seeming rather upset at Tim’s obvious distress, but another voice chimed in before Tim could reply,  
“Sorry bout getting on your nerves Tim-tams, but they were gonna hurt my daughter, so I could really let them do that,” Jack mumbled as he gradually began to wake up from his fit. Tim just groaned and forcefully ripped open his desk and threw a blank piece of paper on the floor in front of the toons.  
“Just get in, we’re leaving,” Tim stated putting his jacket back on.  
“Where are we going,” Rhys asked,  
“Home,” Tim replied curtly. Rhys and Jack looked at each other before crawling into the piece of the paper on the floor, Tim snatched it up and folded it up with trembling hands. Tim turned to leave but noticed that Rhys had put the Imprisoner on the desk after getting it back from Jack, he stuffed the Imprisoner in his pocket, also making sure that the Life Giver was also in there, and left his office.

This crowd from earlier had dispersed, Tim was thankful for that, and he walked quickly down the hallway to the front entrance. He was about to tell Meg that he was leaving before Meg herself cut him off,  
“Tim! Oh, I am so glad you’re here I need your help desperately, I don’t know what I should do.” Meg said in a panic, Tim frowned and walked over to her.  
“Whats wrong?” Tim asked as he looked at her computer from over her shoulder.  
“Ok, so. Security came over to my desk earlier and told me they needed me to look through meeting room 3’s security footage from the last hour as there had been an incident, and to tell them when I found something,” Tim’s heart sink already knowing where this was going but asking anyway,  
“Did you find anything?”  
“Yes but I don’t know what to do!” She cried as she moved the footage to a bit earlier.

What Tim was greeted with was the three department heads packing up their things and getting up to leave. Suddenly, however, as they were moving to leave a torrent of black ink shot out of the vent, knocking Alexander to the ground and covering him in ink. Before the other two had a chance to protest two arm-like appendages grabbed them and yanked them directly into the ink. The ink then started moving and taking form into some sort of ink monstrosity with an upside down glowing scar on its face.  
“Jesus…” Tim whispered under his breath, but Meg shook her head,  
“That's not all of it, watch the rest.”

The creature seemed to be painting as more ink dripped out of the ink forming into another thing, this one looked more like a person. Rhys formed on the ground in front of the thing, he then said something to the monster and it turned to look at Rhys. Rhys then spoke again to the thing and then reached out and cupped the things face in his hand and brought it to his chest. The monster had started to turn into something more humanoid when Rhys’ head snapped to the side and he started to drag the thing into the vent. A few moments after the two had disappeared the door was kicked open and security entered the room. Meg stopped the tape there and turned to stare at Tim silently begging Tim to tell her what she should do, Tim just continued to stare at the paused screen. After a few moments, Tim cleared his throat and looked at Meg’s pleading eyes.

“Ok so… Geez, um. I think we should hold onto this for a bit until we can figure out the best course of action.” Tim tried looking questioningly at Meg. Meg just shook her head,  
“Security wants it ASAP. Tim what are we gonna do??? We can’t just give this to security it’s insane! But we also can’t just hide it from them!” Tim mulled that over for a minute as Meg was trying her best to hold back tears, then started again.  
“Take a recording of the footage then delete the initial recording of the tapes.” Meg just looked at him as if he sprouted another head,  
“If we do that, just say when you were looking through the tapes the footage had been deleted and you’re trying to recover it, then if we decide we should give security the raw footage just say you recovered it?” Tim said, more of a question than a statement. Meg just sat and thought about that for a minute.  
“Ok, I’ll do it, I’m not sure if this is the best idea, but at least it buys some time, if you could help me out a bit more could you try and think of what we should do and we can brainstorm tomorrow?”  
Tim nodded,  
“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow them?”  
“Yeah see ya, I’m going to go talk to security.” Meg agreed then got up.

Tim left the front door as Meg started down the hallway further into the building. The ride home was completely silent as nobody seemed to be in a talkative mood. When they entered the apartment the silence continued as Tim began to make lunch and Jack and Rhys escaped into the guest room. Tim mulled over the events of the day, everything was going relatively fine until Jack had to go and lose his temper and kill three people. He sighed as he cooked his eggs, what was he supposed to do now?

Rhys sat across from Jack on the bed of the guest room, frowning. Jack didn’t like when Rhys frowned, it meant his kitten was upset. Jack opened his mouth to say something but closed it again when he couldn’t find the words to say.

Did he mess up today, yes he did big time, and now Tim and Rhys were upset with him. But they were going to hurt his baby girl, and that's something he could let happen, he just needed to make them understand that. But now something else is heading over the horizon, that footage of Rhys in the meeting room. They knew what he looked liked if that Meg woman showed security… But that was something to worry about later, right now he had to comfort his Rhysie.

“Rhys-” jack started but Rhys cut him off,  
“I know Jack, ‘I’m sorry, but they were going to hurt Angel, so I had to kill them’ I get it, It’s just… Those were Tim’s bosses. What is Tim going to do? From the yelling match outside before he entered the workshop, some people already think he did it. What going to happen to him?” Rhys sighed looking down at the bed. Jack frowned, Rhys was right of course, this would have negative repercussions on Tim.  
“Yeah I know, I’m… we’ll figure it out, we’ll fix this for Tim, make everything right again.” Jack sighed, he was not good at this apologizing thing. Luckily Rhys seemed to get the message,  
“I know Jack, but I'm not the one you need to convince.” Jack looked at the door, and looked back at Rhys, then got off the bed.

Tim angrily ate his fried eggs as he debated what the best course of action to take would be. He heard the door to the guest room open as he was finishing up with lunch and saw Jack peaking out the door, god what did he want now? Jack shuffled over followed by Rhys, and sighed and ran his hand through his hair before starting,  
“Ok, I messed up by killing you bosses ok? I… I just… I don’t know ok? I was just so mad I could see straight and I was in the workshop then I was in the meeting room. I just lost control.” Tim looked at him for a minute, then sighed.  
“Alright fine, but if it happens again…” Tim let the sentence hang in the air, both toons getting the message. Jack let out a large breath then leaned against the refrigerator,  
“So cupcake, Meg, what are we going to do about her?” Jack asked,  
“I hope you mean what are we going to do about the security footage,” Tim corrected Jack, “And at this point, I think our best solution would be to just tell Meg to delete the footage.” Jack nodded,  
“Yeah, that is the best option because Rhysie is on there and who knows what's going to happen to him if that goes viral.” Tim and Rhys nodded.  
“Ok so it’s settled then, I’ll tell Meg to delete the footage tomorrow,” Tim stated, glad he could finally see and end to all this madness. Rhys and Jack agreed then walked off back to the guest room, Tim sighed and sat down on the couch and flicked on his TV, he was definitely going to take a vacation after all of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It looks like the ending is next chapter. Are you sad to see it ending? I'm kinda sad to see my first fanfic coming to a close, but I'm also kinda nervous, wanna give it a fitting ending that feels satisfying.


	10. Chapter 10: Animated Horrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vasquez learns a valuable lesson: Mind your buissness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you ready?

Tim walked into work the next morning, relieved that this was finally about to be over. He walked over and placed a cup of coffee in front of Meg, who looked down at the coffee and muttered a thank you. Tim frowned slightly noticing Meg’s strange behavior.  
“Hey good morning Meg, so I was thinking about what we should do last night and honestly, because of the nature of the video, I think just deleting it would be the best idea. I feel like this is the kind of thing should just fade away.” Tim said to Meg, as she started to hunch downward making herself look as small as possible. Tim shot her a confused look, a creeping suspicion that Meg had done something with the videos, but he needed to make sure.  
“Meg… You didn't do anything with the video did you?” Meg flinched in response and started sinking lower into the chair, to the point where she was half in the chair half on the floor, “Meg what did you do?” Tim asked warily.

“I gave a copy to Vasquez!” Meg suddenly announced, but before Tim could say anything she continued,”He saw us looking at the video and wanted a copy because he thought I was hiding something that you did in the room! I told him that it wasn't you, and you didn't do anything but he wouldn't listen! He said he would get you off of the show if I didn’t do what he wanted! And I know how much getting on the show meant to you and I… I’m so sorry! I didn’t want to! Please forgive me!” Meg practically sobbed.

Tim took a deep breath and started rubbing Meg’s back,  
“It’s ok Meg, I understand, you just wanted to help and Vasquez is a douche, It’s gonna be ok alright.” Tim comforted Meg allowing Meg to calm down a bit before continuing, “Alright now I need you to delete the copies of the video that you have ok? All of them, and I’ll take care of Vasquez’s copy alright?” Meg nodded.  
“W-What are you going to do?” Meg asked, sniffling. Tim shook his head,  
“I’m not sure yet, but I’ll figure it out ok? Everything gonna is be alright.” Tim gave her a smile, Meg just gave him a sad smile back. Tim patted her on the shoulder before walking to his workshop and shutting the door behind him.

Rhys and Jack jumped out of the paper once Tim closed the door.  
“GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!” Jack yelled before Rhys grabbed him and hugged him close to his chest whispering in his ear,  
“I know this is bad handsome, but you need to calm down right now. Getting mad, and killing him is only going to make things worse ok?” Rhys brought his hand to Jack's face bringing their foreheads together and staring into his eyes as Jack began to calm down.

“Wait a second, Jack, without getting angry, can you turn into that giant ink thing?” Tim asked, Jack, turned to look at him confused, but answered,  
“Um, I suppose I can turn into something similar? What are you getting at cupcake?”  
Tim smiled as a plan began to form in his mind,  
“Guys, I have an idea,”

Vasquez frowned looking at the footage on his office computer for what seemed like the fifth time. Sure it proved that the department heads didn't just vanish into thin air, but how was he going to blame this on Tim? He frowned as he stared at the screen, listening to the sound of dripping filling his office, maybe he can blame it on the other weirdo in the video and frame Tim as an accomplice? He groaned, man, trying to frame people for murder was hard, and the dripping noise was not helping.

Vasquez turned angrily to the source of the dripping noise. His anger quickly faded into confusion as he found the source of the noise was a trickle of a black substance coming from the vent. Vasquez got up from where he was sitting and slowly approached the vent dipping his figures in the liquid then rubbing them together, figuring out that the substance was ink. He frowned and looking into the vent to see if he could find the source of the ink. What he saw, however, was a single eye staring at him unblinking. Vasquez froze as he stared at the eye, after what seemed like an eternity something inside the vent rasped out,  
_“I see you…”_

Vasquez jumped back with a yelp and crashed into his chair, knocking it over as he hit the ground. He groaned and rubbed his head as he looked back to the vent, to find that all the ink was gone. He started to get back up and slowly approached the vent when he was startled by a sudden loud banging on his door. Vasquez scowled throwing a glance into the vent, nothing, before marching over to his door.

Vasquez began to open the door, only to be shoved out of the way as the figure barreled into his office, Vasquez opened his mouth to scold the person before realizing who it was.  
“Vasquez! You gotta delete that video!” Tim yelled in a panic, his entire appearance was disheveled and his throat was covered in ink, as well as some ink leaking out of his nose, “You gotta delete that video or we’re both going to die!” Tim yelled as he grabbed the front of Vasquez’s shirt yanking him forward.

Vasquez frowned at him as he shoved him off,  
“Tim I don’t know what the hell has gotten into you, but you're talking crazy! I know you just want me to delete the video because it proves you did something to the department heads!” Vasquez accused, Tim just looked at him bewildered.  
“You have to delete that video! That thing in the video is coming for us! I was able to save Meg from any grief because I went to her right before coming here and told her to delete the videos and she did, and she’s fine! But we’re not going to be, you can’t tell me you haven't seen it too! The ink, the eyes the thing watching you! Delete it before it kills us both!” Tim insisted. Vasquez glanced over to the vent, no no no, he wasn’t believing Tim’s crazy talk. Vasquez grabbed Tim by the back of the shirt and began to drag him toward the door.

“Look, Tim, I get it, the guilt of killing the department heads is making you all crazy. It’s ok if you confess it’ll get better!” Vasquez assured Tim as he opened the door, “But for now get the fuck out of my office,” he said throwing Tim to the ground outside the door to his office before slamming the door. He shook his head, as he sat back down, the imaginations of some people!

Later in the day, Vasquez found himself enter the men's bathroom. He looked around finding himself alone, shrugging he entered the first stall. Though right as he closed the stall door the lights began to flicker. He turned around scowling waiting for a minute to see if it happened again, sure enough, half a minute or so later the lights began to flicker again before half of them just gave out. He let out a groan opening the stall door to figure out what was going on. He gasped as he looked at the four mirrors in the room. Black ink in the form of words covered most of the surface of the mirrors,  
_“I’M COMING FOR YOU”_

A low snarling noise began from the darkness, as Vasquez slowly turned to face it. Deeper into the bathroom, where the lights had completely gone out, a giant ink monstrosity was partially illuminated by the flickering light of the bathroom. The two just stared at each other as the thing’s snarls rose in volume before it began to quickly move forward. Vasquez let out a high-pitched scream before sprinting out of the bathroom. He sprinted across the building, earning him a lot of slipways glances until he finally arrived at Tim’s workshop pounding on the door.

After about a minute and some rustling noises from behind the door, the door cracks open and Tim tentatively peeks out.  
“W-What do you want?” He asked warily, Vasquez shoved past him and into the workshop, the place was trashed. The desk was to the side of the door, and ruined paper and shattered inkwells littered the floor. Tim regained his balance and Vasquez realized he looked even worse than before, his hands and sleeves, as well as his shoes and pants below the knee, were covered in ink.  
“Ok, so maybe you were right… Maybe this weird ink thing is real and maybe it has been appearing for me too.” Vasquez begrudgingly admitted as he side-eyed Tim. Tim breathed a sigh of relief,  
“So you’ll delete the video?” Tim asked hopefully, but Vasquez just scoffed,  
“No idiot, we’re going to work together to kill this thing!” Tim frowned,  
“What, how?”  
“I don’t know we’ll look it up online! I’m sure someone has posted about this sort of thing on the internet before! We can’t be the first people experiencing something of the sort!” Vasquez insisted, shrugging. Tim just frowned as Vasquez grabbed his arm and lead him to his office.

“Look so I think this thing is kinda similar to what we’re dealing with,” Vasquez called out to Tim as he stores at the screen. It was sunset now, and Tim was sitting in one of his comfy office chairs positioned in front of his desk, also looking through reports of strange beings. Tim hummed in response and Vasquez continued,  
“There’s this thing called the ‘Slenderman’ and maybe it shares some weaknesses with the ink thing?” Tim looked up and sent a confused glance at the vent, before shrugging and returning to Nero Atsume adding,  
“What weaknesses does it have?” Tim asked Vasquez frowned  
“I don’t- Oh! Wait! Heres ones! Its… never mind” Vasquez frowned as he read that they had to destroy any photos or videos containing the thing for it to even get a chance to leave, he wasn't going to admit that he was right damn it!

“Look, Vasquez, I understand you don’t want to delete the video but if we’re going to live through this, we need to get rid of it,” Tim insisted, but Vasquez just slammed his hands on his desk and yelled,  
“NO! WE ARE NOT DELETING THE VIDEO!” Tim was taken aback by his outburst, and Vasquez sighed running his hands through his hair.  
“Let's head out for the night, we’ll figure out what we're going to do tomorrow,” Vasquez stated turning off his computer and getting up from his desk. Tim clicked his phone off and got up as well, muttering under his breath.

As they left the room and faced the rest of the hallway, the lights began to flicker and a mass of ink began to congeal together and grow into a humanoid form. Vasquez watched as it formed into the man the one-armed man in the video. The man’s head snapped up to stare at them once he had fully formed, the pinned up sleeve of his right arm began to unravel and a tube began to appear from the cuff. It was a second too late that Vasquez realized that the thing wasn’t, in fact, a tube, but a muzzle and the end of the man’s sleeve turned into a Tommy gun, which the man leveled at them with a grin before being to fire at them.

Ink bullets began soaring down the hallway towards them, ink splattering against the wall upon impact. Both of the men immediately turned around and threw the door at open under the hail of inkish gunfire, Vasquez shoving Tim out of the way to get inside. Tim was barely able to make it into the room before Vasquez slammed the door shut and locked the door. Both Tim and Vasquez braced themselves against the door as ink bullets splattered against the door. Tim turned to Vasquez and screamed in his face,  
“DELETE THE FUCKING VIDEO VASQUEZ! DO IT NOW!” Vasquez was about to protest before a loud slam was felt against the door, and Vasquez finally decided to cut his losses and delete the thing.

Vasquez ran away from the door as Tim continued to brace it with his body, and turned on his computer. Suddenly the pounding stopped, and the ink began to slink under the door and climb up Tim’s legs.  
“HURRY!” Tim yelled panicking as the ink linked its way up his legs. Vasquez was panicking after it killed Tim it was going to kill him! He navigated his way to the file he kept the video in and deleted it, then moved into the recycling bin and, hesitantly, emptied the recycling bin.

“I DID IT IT’S DELETED!” Vasquez yelled to Tim, the ink on Tim’s legs stopped. Tim subtly looked over Vasquez’s shoulder to Rhys who had formed behind him, making sure he had actually deleted it. Rhys shot Tim a thumbs up and Tim’s face melted into relief as his gaze returned to Vasquez and he softly kicked the door twice, letting Jack know to back off.

Jack let go of Tim’s legs and retreated back from under the door and Rhys quickly slipped into the Vent before Vasquez noticed him. Tim let out a sigh,  
“Thank god, you did that just in time I thought I was a goner!” Tim sighed and Vasquez scowled,  
“Just leave.” Tim, for once was glad to do just as asked, and made his way down the hallway, sparing a glance to the inked hallway camera, he pulled a blank piece of paper out and dropped it on the floor, and watched as the puddle of ink in the corner jumped into the paper and another slinked out of a vent and slicked into the paper as well. Tim then snatched up the piece of paper and folded it up as he walked out of the deserted building.

As he walked out he found Meg still at her desk, she seemed to perk up when she saw him before her face melded into that of concern at his appearance.  
“What happened, Tim?? You look like you got in a fight with an ink machine!” Meg gasped, Tim however just gave her a wide grin as he replied,  
“Not to worry Meg, I’m fine, I was just tricking Vasquez into deleting the video by faking a haunting!” Meg’s looked surprised but then grinned at him,  
“I’m glad it worked out!” Tim nodded,  
“Oh yeah, also I’m going to take the day off tomorrow,” Meg nodded,  
“I'll make a note of it.”

When Tim arrived home the three of them sat around the table laughing about the day's events.  
“I’ve got to hand it to you, Tim Tams! When you first proposed the idea of haunting him I didn’t think it was gonna work but, holy shit the look on his face when Rhys was turning the lights on and off in the bathroom! It looked like he was gonna piss himself!” Jack laughed, Rhys and Tim, chuckling as well.  
“Tim I didn’t know you were such a good actor! Your performance was really impressive!” Rhys said to Tim, and Tim just laughed  
“Yeah it was one of the things I studied in college, also you’re a really good shot, while I knew you were purposefully missing us, some of those came really close!” Tim replied to Rhys, Rhys just smiled and nodded,  
“You pick up a few things in the Mafia.”  
“Well cupcakes,” Jack said when he finally calmed down, “That was a whole lot of fun, but are you sure we should just kill him?” Tim shook his head,  
“Trust me it's better this way, besides, if he annoys us we can just make some ink appear.” Tim chuckled.  
“Aw kitten! That is great!” Jack announced wrapping his arm around Tim’s shoulders. Tim just laughed looking at the two toons, maybe, bringing them to life wasn't that bad of an idea after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, guess that's the last Chapter! but don't be too sad! We still got the Epilogue!


	11. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few months later...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let see what these idiots have been up to.

Thinking back on the events since then, Tim finds that they went rather smoothly. Vasquez was promoted to head of Character design, only to be fired after evidence of him sabotaging another employee's workstation was brought to light. They then promoted Tim, due to his work on the “Handsome Jack” character, who later became one of the shows most popular and iconic characters.

Before that, however, he was pulled into a meeting with the remaining department heads and was asked about the meeting he had with the old department heads, as the notes had been destroyed by ink damage. So Tim told them the truth, the old heads of department had suggested no major changes to the personality or backstory of Handsome Jack’s character.

They seemed to accept that answer and his backstory was left as it was. However, Tim had an idea, and before the meeting had ended he had asked if he could attempt to voice ask for Handsome Jack. The department heads said that he could definitely audition if that was what he wanted. Later at the audition, he got the role. The judge, however, didn’t need to know that the sound of Tim's voice was coming from his pocket and not his mouth of course.

The second session of the show was a huge success, and the finale at the vault of the warrior, ending with Angel and Jack escaping was a huge hit. That, of course, brought them to where they were now, with Jack throwing some of Tim’s popcorn at the television screen as the words ‘And they were never seen or heard from again… Or so they thought.” appeared and the credits rolled.

“Eh, I still think I should have won. I’m Handsome-god-damn-Jack for christ sake! I obviously had the superior team with: myself, The Warrior, and my amazing fucking daughter Angel!” Jack huffed as Rhys put a hand on Jack’s shoulder.  
“We know Handsome,” Rhys chuckled, “Also, Tim, do you have any idea what's going to happen next? I’m assuming Angel and Jack are returning or that cheesy ‘Or so they thought’ wouldn’t be there?” Tim just shrugged in response.  
“Just have to wait and see!” Tim said while cracking a smile, content with it being a mystery. Jack apparently wasn’t, as he began with a loud,  
“Oh! It’s gonna be awesome! So! Here what's gonna happen…” Before going over the entire plot for the third season. Tim just shook his head watching as Jack vehemently described the story, and Rhys sat watching him lovingly.

Ah yes, over the past few months or so they’ve been getting closer as well. It was apparent to anyone that saw them, so Tim, that they really did care about each other, and while they did have a few spats, it was usually over dumb things like the music or what color juice they wanted. Even though they couldn’t go on dates like a normal couple, Tim might accidentally get candles and wine and nice flowers, and accidentally forget to bring Jack to work with him the next day, and accidently forget to tell Rhys he was going to the movies or something after work, leaving Rhys and Jack alone for a few hours.

It was nice. After he first met the toons he honestly had no idea what he was going to do, but now he was glad that they were here. Jack might be an asshole, and Rhys might be a criminal, and they both might not really be real. But they were Tim’s not real asshole and not real criminal, and they were each other's. Tim smiled as he leaned back into the couch, Jack still going on about the plot, and Rhys asking questions. Everything was going to be just fine, Tim decided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like that's a wrap! I'm eternally grateful for all the love and support I've gotten during the writing of this fic, and I'm happy and sad to see my first fic finished, glad I was able to finish it, sad because it's over. Anyway, thank you all so much for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed! And as always u can find me here: https://esperosisisaloser.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry If that was bad, Again it's my first fanfiction literally ever.  
> Comments are appreciated


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